Linguist Mari Kendla spoke on Vikerraadio about how the Estonian language and folk tradition describe Christmas.

She highlighted St. Thomas' Day (toomapäev) on the winter solstice as a turning point toward the light, and shared how Estonians use vivid words to describe brightness, light and white.

The key winter holidays according to the modern, Gregorian calendar run from St. Thomas' Day (toomapäev) on December 21 to Epiphany, or Three Kings' Day (kolmekuningapäev) on January 6 — with Christmas (jõulud) itself, beginning with Christmas Eve (jõululaupäev), serving as the star of the season.

While the winter solstice itself has more recently fallen into Christmas' shadow, toomapäev was also traditionally marked with pre-Christmas cleaning, when Soot Thomas (Tahma-Toomas) was figuratively driven out and White Thomas (Valge-Toomas) invited into the home, symbolizing light overcoming darkness.

Many hope each year for a white Christmas (valged jõulud), with sparkling lights joined by a picture perfect blanket of snow.

But Estonian vocabulary doesn't just stop at snow white (lumivalge) — you can also describe things as clear-white (klaarvalge), pearl-white (pärlvalge), painfully white (valuvalge) or even godly-white (jumalavalge).

Too bright? Perhaps seagull-white (kajakvalge) or swan-white (luikvalge) fits better.

And while the word raven is more likely to be used in English to describe very dark or black hair, in Estonian, ravens themselves have been known to be referred to as white birds (valged linnud).

This year, snow arrived a little too late for most of Estonia to enjoy valged jõulud. But 2025 is going out like a lion, bringing the first major snow of the winter — and the days are already getting longer by the rooster's step (kukesammu võrra pikemaks).

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