Stettler’s Estonian community came together to celebrate Jaanipaev on June 24.
Jannipaev is the Estonian celebration of the summer solstice and is one of the country’s longest-recognized holidays.
With Stettler’s rich Estonian heritage, a full day of activities was planned in the community beginning at 10 a.m. at the Town and Country Museum.
The first item on the agenda for the dozen or so people who showed up at the museum was to tour the Estonian Settlement, located at the northwest corner of the museum grounds. The house had been built by original Estonian settler George Tamberg in the region in the area of Linda Hall around the 1930s.
In the late 1970s, the house had been subsequently donated and moved to the museum where it was refurbished as an exhibit.
Inside the house are many antiques used by the settlers around the early 1900s.
After the tour was complete at the museum, everyone went over to Stettler’s P and H Elevator where a catered lunch of soup and sandwiches was provided to around 50 guests.
Before lunch, the assembled group sang both the national anthem of Canada and Estonia and listened to a presentation by Rein Paasuke on the history of Estonians in the province.
Town of Stettler Mayor Sean Nolls and County of Stettler Reeve Larry Clarke also brought greetings from their respective agencies.
Following lunch, a presentation and slide show was made by Pauline Brennan of Banff.
Once the presentation concluded, the group split with elevator volunteers providing some of the group a tour of the facility while others boarded the train for an excursion to Big Valley and back.
Eventually, the two groups came back together at the elevator to close the day where they spent time visiting and swapping stories.
According to event organizer Evelyn Shursen, a visit to the Donalda lamp had also been planned for the day however that plan was aborted as people were getting tired and seemed content to just visit.
Shurson says that she has received lots of positive feedback on the event, with one person writing her that it was “a very enjoyable afternoon and a good day to remember our parents and grandparents.”
“I was quite pleased,” said Shursen.
Estonians came to Alberta in three waves beginning at the end of the 19th century.
In the first wave, homesteaders arrived from Estonia and settled near Sylvan Lake, Eckville and the Medicine River Valley.
As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, more groups came to Alberta, with some settling in Stettler in the vicinity of Linda Hall.
According to Shursen, her grandfather settled in the Stettler area as it reminded him of the old country.
“It was very similar to Estonia where he had been living,” said Shursen.
A second wave of Estonians arrived in Canada as tens of thousands fled the country in the summer of 1944 as the Russian army invaded the nation during World War 2. The second wave of Estonians spread across Canada, settling in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Alberta.
The third wave occurred in the 1990s after Estonia once again regained independence from the now-former Soviet Union. Again, Estonians travelled all over, but again some chose to call Alberta home.
Into the 21st century, there are now fourth and fifth-generation descendants of the original Estonian settlers who still remain in Alberta.
Estonians in Alberta have celebrated frequently over the last couple of decades; in 1999 a provincial celebration was held to celebrate the first settlement in Alberta at Linda Hall with around 500 in attendance.
The communities of Eckville and Barons held celebrations two- and four-year later, respectively.
Through the 2000s and 2010s, the Estonians of Alberta have come together every two or three years to celebrate Jaanipaev, usually hosted somewhere in Central Alberta. A previous celebration held in the Stettler area in 2009 had over 200 in attendance.
