Marin Mõttus: In lieu of a New Year's wish
Dear Estonians around the world
It's Epiphany. While the first week of the year was still a party atmosphere for many of us, now is the time to make New Year's wishes come true. And wishes tend to come true, especially if you take action towards them yourself. Here in Tallinn, we are full of the will to act at the beginning of the new year and hope that you too will share Estonian entrepreneurship, cleverness and unity, wherever you are in the world.
Let's start with a little retrospective. 2025 was an uplifting and powerful year for Estonians in Estonia and everywhere else around the world: we held an incredibly proud Song and Dance Festival and ESTO. Last year, about a hundred Estonian choirs and dance groups from outside Estonia participated in the Song and Dance Festival, and this is an awe-inspiring number: honor and praise to the creators, choir directors and dance teachers! All participants and the audience got soaked from head to toe at this year's party, and perhaps such an emotional (re)encounter with the Estonian summer climate added just the necessary sense of togetherness to the joy of singing: but we did it, despite the pouring rain! The ESTO, which took place immediately before the song festival, filled the nooks and crannies of Tallinn's Old Town with guests from all continents who were looking for and hopefully found their roots; several cafes and bars were transformed into ESTO secret taverns to the delight of the townspeople, and the Kultuurikaitel provided a place for serious discussions in as many as ten different workshops. For the first time in history, this year's ESTO also extended to Narva, offering the people there the opportunity to meet a facet of Estonian society that had perhaps previously remained quite distant to them.
We all enjoy parties and major events, and we are happy to acknowledge their organizers. But they would not be possible without the daily work done by Estonian language teachers in more than eighty Estonian schools, Sunday schools or study groups all over the world. “If the language disappears, the people disappear”, we say with conviction. Because it is through language that our culture and mindset are transmitted, and the Estonian teacher abroad is the center around which the survival of Estonian life is concentrated. Teacher Laur gave Arno a violin; you, teachers, are giving Estonian children abroad the language of their ancestors. Be grateful and strong for the future!
So what will the coming year bring us? We have thought that 2026 could be the year of youth. There are many exciting things happening in Estonia during the summer for young people living abroad, but this year we would like to give it more resonance and content than before and, above all, offer more concrete opportunities to have practical contact with Estonian life.
For years, we have offered teenagers the opportunity to participate in the Estonian language and mindset camp in Venevere in Central Estonia in July-August. Venevere is a kind of mystical place: you can reach Tallinn, Tartu and Viljandi in a couple of hours, while living in the middle of “real” land, fields and forests. Like at grandma’s in the countryside, only the match bushes are missing… So far, not all those who want to can fit into the camp, and this year we plan to slightly increase the number of campers so that no one has to miss out on this experience due to lack of space. However, for those who don’t mind a little work, we offer the opportunity to join a student chess shift. After work, chess offers a time to be together and do something active; this experience is something that many young (and not so young) Estonians in Estonia have, and we dare say that it only depends on you how much awesome you can and will take away from the chess summer.
In August, when most countries have vacation time at work and at universities, we invite young people aged 18-35 to get to know Estonian life better for a week or ten days. We do not intend to organize real tourist trips, but rather to go where you usually do not know how or do not succeed in looking. With the participation of experts, we will investigate what opportunities the Estonian labor market and academic landscape offer. We invite you to think about serious and vital issues: how safe is Estonia and how to protect this beautiful small country in the current volatile world? We will definitely go to nature, be it Soomaa or a mushroom forest, or maybe a smoke sauna in the middle of a virgin land. And there will certainly be young people from Estonia with us everywhere, and they will know best where to recommend where to go in Estonia this summer: whether to the Viljandi Folk Festival or the Paide Opinion Festival, the Seto Kingdom Day, or to visit the Kadri(s) in Muhumaa (to find out more about which Kadri(s) we are talking about, you will have to come yourself).
We have a particularly exciting event for young people interested in history: a summer school organized by the Estonian Memory Institute, which will take participants to search for their roots and the origins of the Estonian state. EMI is one of the most comprehensive and longest-running memory institutions in Estonia, where a database of Estonian refugees is compiled, the story of the forest brotherhood in Estonia is studied, and other historical topics that we could learn more about in depth than most of us currently know. The summer school also takes participants outside Tallinn to places that are important in terms of Estonia's recent history and where a casual tourist would not easily find their way.
Of course, this year too, you can apply for a scholarship to complete an internship in Estonian companies and state institutions. The feedback on the internship programme so far has been very positive, because internships provide experience of Estonian working life and the business climate, language practice and also a professional network of contacts. The latter will come in handy in the future if you plan to come to live and work in Estonia, but can also help you find cooperation opportunities with Estonia when you live elsewhere. There is great interest in interns who have studied and gained work experience abroad – or future employees – and we are happy to offer support in finding an internship base.
But of course, all Estonians are welcome in Estonia: both those who are young in years, those who are young at heart (as has been the custom lately), and those who happily consider themselves old or middle-aged. And certainly not only in the summer or at Christmas. Perhaps the sweetest time is right now, when the falling Christmas trees are taken to the designated collection points (yes, we have carefully thought this out too, just like Estonians!), workplaces collectively “get down to business” and cultural life returns from the hectic schedule of Christmas concerts and performances to a lively spirit wave. Everything starts happening again, with fresh strength and new energy.
All the latest information about all the above-mentioned – and also those not mentioned – initiatives, various application rounds and other events will first be available on the Global Estonian website and in the newsletter. Read it yourself and forward it to a friend!
Marin Mõttus
Ambassador at Large for the Diaspora
