On the proposal of the Estonian Literary Museum, the President of the Republic's Folklore Award will go to Piret Päär, Veronika Savi and Melika Kindel this year.

Piret Päär is the headmistress of the Centre of Popular Culture Development and Education, and Veronica Savi is a fourth-year student at the Tallinn Pedagogical University. They will receive the award for a joint initiative and their work with gathering the travelling-related oral tradition. In the year 2000, they initiated and organised the recording of the hitchhikers' oral tradition. On the 123 pages they delivered to the museum different facets of the tradition related to this modern phenomenon are discussed – traditional stories told by hitchhikers, hitchhiking rules, superstitions and customs.

Melika Kindel is a third-year student of Tartu University, currently an exchange student at Turku University, studying folkloristics and ethnology. She organised the gathering of the oral site-related tradition in the secondary schools of Kuusalu, Loksa, and Kolga, in the area of the Kuusalu parish, where she herself comes from. As a result of Melika Kindel's collection work, the folklore archives received written folklore on nearly 500 pages, recorded by 68 schoolchildren. With her work, Melika Kindel developed the children's understanding and love of their neighbourhood.

In the year 2000, the folklore archives of the Estonian Literary Museum received about 46,000 hand-written pages, 118 digital sound recordings, and 581 photos. More than one hundred people handed over materials to the archive, after having questioned dozens of people, or urged them to commit their knowledge to writing. There are many secondary school and university students among the contributors.

This year's Folklore Awards of the President of the Republic will be handed over at the Fireplace Hall of the Estonian Literary Museum at noon on February 22, 2001.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, February 20, 2001

back | archive of press releases | main page