Carpe Diem 976 Estonia

!!! My excuses for publishing this late, I am in the nightshift !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome in Estonia, our new stage in our Europe Ginko. Recently Hamish "Managua" Gunn came up with a prompt suggestion which I think I am gonna use here already. His suggestion was about the (Neo-)pagan religion in Estonia, Maausk (meaning: native faith). Let me tell you a little bit about this (neo-)pagan religion.

Maausk ("Native Religion") is a grassroots movement of nature worship, local gods worship, and hiis. It's mostly a polytheistic-pantheistic faith identifying the divine with nature itself. In their annual cyclic calendar the most important holy days are the Jõulud (winter solstice festival) and the Jõulukuu (new year festival) on 25 December, the summer solstice (Jaanipäev), the Munadepühad, the Leedopäev, and the Kasupäev.

Their shrines are hiis or any other natural place. A shrine is a location which may have ancient trees, glacial boulders, bodies of water or unique plants. There may be a swing, fireplace, sauna and a log storage shed at the shrine. People go to various shrines during important festivals or other important occasions, to establish harmony with nature, experience peace and gather strength. Before going to the shrine, body and mind must be purified. Their ethics emphasises mõnu or mõnus, "enjoyment" or more accurately "harmonious life" or "balance".

"Jumiois", symbol of (Taaraism) and Maausk

I like this religion it seems to fit my "religious and spiritual" feeling as a haiku poet. As a haiku poet I live close to nature (and worship that nature) so this neo-pagan religion Maausk fits me very well. I see in every part of nature something to fall in love with or to belief in, nature is really spiritual and it is so me ...

I love to bring more about Maausk, but maybe that's something for a new month of Carpe Diem or maybe a Theme Week.

Let us take a look at the Estonian landscape / nature. As I was doing my research for this episode I ran into a beautiful image of Keila Waterfall:

Keila Waterfall at Dgaponenko

at the waterfall
the sound of falling water mesmerizing -
heavenly experience

© Chèvrefeuille

Or what do you think of this wonderful forest:

Viru-raba-lahemaa-nature-park

deep silence
walking through the forest
the cry of an eagle

© Chèvrefeuille

Really the nature of Estonia is overwhelming ...

As I have done in every episode of this month I have searched the Internet for haiku poets of Estonia. I found one who is well known I think. His name is Andres Ehin. Ehin died in 2011. I found a series of haiku written by him, but they are gathered in an image, which I will give hereafter.

I found this "image" at the Haiku Foundation's homepage.

I hope you did like this episode and that it will inspire you to create new haiku.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June19th at noon (CET). I hope to publish our new episode later on today.