In early January, the new year has just begun and winter break is almost over, but Tartu high schooler Katarina-Lee Saarekivi isn't thinking about school.

"I'm thinking about what we're making to eat for talsipühä," she said.

In Southeastern Estonia, across Setomaa and in Seto communities farther away, families like Saarekivi's prepare for Christmas not just once, but twice. Talsipühä is the Seto Christmas — once likely linked to the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice and later tied to the birth of Christ, just like Western Christmas.

Observed in the Setos' traditional homeland on both sides of the southeastern border, talsipühä is celebrated according to the old Julian calendar. Its Christmas Eve and Day fall on January 6 and 7, preserving customs that long predate Estonia's adoption of the Gregorian calendar.

One of the Setos' most distinctive holiday rituals is hõpõviiga silmi mõskminõ — washing one's eyes with water from a bowl containing silver jewelry on talsipühä morning.

Ornate silver jewelry, known as hõpõkraam, is a distinctive part of Seto women's folk dress, passed down through generations and often including large engraved silver brooches and layers of chains and necklaces made from old silver coins. When it isn't being worn, the silver is usually kept wrapped up and stored out of sight.

Early on talsipühä morning, as the fire is lit in the family's wood-burning stove, the jewelry or some other silver item is placed in a bowl of water. As people wake, they come one by one to wash their eyes — dabbing three times — with the water from the bowl.

The custom is meant to clear one's sight and help them see more clearly in the year ahead.

Not all younger Setos have grown up with the ritual, but some have picked it up again from older community members who have continued to observe the holiday morning practice.

From paper lanterns to Mary's seers

In another old tradition known as kristoslaavitamine, small groups of revelers known as kristotajad would go farm to farm on talsipühä night, announcing the birth of Christ, singing church songs and carrying brightly decorated storm lanterns and spherical paper lanterns called hunnar, löhi, vesto or vannõr.

While originally mostly men, the tradition gradually passed to teens and increasingly included girls as well. Similar to the Estonian mardi- and kadripäev, kristotajad were thanked with gifts of coins, holiday breads, cookies and apples.

The practice has largely faded, but making the colorful paper lanterns remains popular among locals and visitors alike in talsipühä-themed workshops.

More than a century ago, visiting folklorists recorded several other Seto holiday traditions: villagers dressing up as various animals; leigotaminõ, a circle game whose song is still sung during the holiday today; and the widespread wintertime practice of predicting the future through various folk rituals.

Another recorded custom, reminiscent of the Three Kings or Magi, involved Maarja kaejatsõ, or Mary's seers, visiting the local church, where families would bring food or money for the poor.

No day off for talsi'

In Estonia, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day are all public holidays. While groups such as Kihnu islanders and many Russian speakers also celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar, Orthodox Christmas is not.

For many Setos, including Saarekivi, this often means working or going to school on their holiday.

"I think at least January 7 should be a day off, if we can't have two days," Saarekivi said. "Every culture deserves time off for its major holidays."

In Tallinn, fellow high schooler Emilia Berg agrees. "There are plenty of people from different cultures in Estonia who would like the day off to focus on their holidays — and even if you don't celebrate, who's going to say no to a day off?"

Like Saarekivi before her, Berg was elected nuursootska, or youth regent, by Seto children this summer, serving as a leader and liaison for kids in the broader Seto community. But even before her election, Berg would celebrate talsipühä alongside students at the Tallinn Seto School — similarly to Estonian school Christmas celebrations in the diaspora.

"We get together, eat traditional dishes, dance, sing, and older folks share how they celebrated when they were young," she said.

Faith, food and community

Still, for many, talsipühä means heading home to Setomaa.

"Sometimes the 'old-calendar' holidays are even more important," said Jane Vabarna, a two-time former ülembsootska — the regent or leader of the Seto people — and staple of the Seto community.

"Celebrating the old holidays isn't commercialized, so you can enjoy them quietly with family and loved ones," she added.

On either January 6 or 7, many Setos attend church. Those on the Estonian side belong to the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (EAÕK). Some families visit family graves in December, others in January.

As with other traditional Seto holidays, food is integral to talsipühä, with a shared festive meal a highlight of the holiday. Traditionally, families slaughtered a pig and prepared roast pork, verivorst (blood sausage), verikäkid (blood pancakes), sült (aspic) and pasteet (pate), as well as vatsk (a small barley or rye cake similar to karask), white bread, pirukad (savory hand pies), homemade beer and even sweet pies made from dried, poached wild pears.

Vabarna remembers sleigh rides, handmade tree ornaments and holiday dishes baked in the family's wood-fired oven in her teens.

Many of these traditions continue today, and while several holiday foods are long since available in Estonian grocery stores, workshops let even local children help make everything from vatsk to blood sausage.

Her family puts up its Christmas tree just before Estonian Christmas so it stays fresh through January. "At our house, the tree doesn't go out until viiristminõ," she said, referring to Orthodox Epiphany on January 19.

As its Seto name suggests, viiristminõ — Theophany — marks Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River. Historically, it marked the end of two weeks of talsipühä celebrations.

Holy water brought home from church that day was traditionally used to treat illnesses in people and animals, and a uniquely Seto custom involved marking doors and windows with tar or chalk crosses and placing small wooden crosses in wells and outbuildings.

Living family traditions

Talsipühä has survived calendar changes, wars and occupations, remaining a living tradition in Setomaa and among Setos further away. Many Seto families in Estonia today also celebrate a mix of holidays.

In Setomaa Municipality, local schools and kindergartens help pass down Seto traditions to the next generation.

Setomaa Kindergarten, including its two Seto immersion classrooms in Värska and Meremäe, enrolls children from varied backgrounds. According to director Sanna Saarestik, celebrating the local culture's holidays while respecting each family's traditions is key — and families and the community are involved whenever possible.

Most years include field trips to children's talsipühä events at the nearby Värska Farm Museum.

"At the kindergarten, we've also made pancakes, played games and gone sleighing or riding in a horse-drawn carriage — or found creative alternatives," Saarestik said.

This winter, Vabarna and her family will join the museum's January 7 talsipühä celebrations. "The old farm buildings there are the perfect setting for celebrating the old holidays," she said.

The museum is also hosting all-ages talsipühä workshops on January 3 and 10.

Talsipidu in Tartu

A few days earlier, she and her brother Jalmar — the current ülembsootska — will be in Tartu, where Setos living in Estonia's second city have shaped a newer tradition.

In 2022, Tartu's city Christmas tree came from the Setomaa village of Rõsna. The following January, the first official talsipidu wrapped up Tartu's Christmas Village season with a public Seto talsipühä celebration organized by the city and the Seto community.

"This year, it will be on January 4, from  4–6 p.m.," Vabarna said.

As host, she'll talk about Seto customs between performances by leelo choirs singing traditional polyphonic Seto music, remarks from the mayor and a holiday speech from ülembsootska Jalmar Vabarna. Dancing and music by Eeva and Villu Talsi will round out the evening.

According to city event organizer Ragnar Konson, the celebration has grown more popular each year. Tartu's talsipidu has become part of Saarekivi's yearly rhythm as well.

"Almost every year, there are at least two celebrations, depending on the schedule — one at home in Setomaa and the other in Tartu, at Town Hall Square," she said.

Cross-border connections

In the old Seto capital of Petseri, annual talsipühä celebrations at a local school long drew packed crowds.

Petseri — now administratively part of Russia's Pskov Oblast — is home to a public school that until the end of the 2004–2005 school year still taught in Estonian. For decades, the former Petseri II High School has hosted one of the largest annual talsipühä celebrations, drawing Setos from both sides of the border as well as local and Estonian dignitaries.  

In a January 2000 edition of the "Setomaa" monthly paper, former ülembsootska Piret Torm-Kriis described that year's Petseri celebration as packed to the rafters.

Children performed a holiday play, speaking Russian but wearing traditional Seto folk dress and singing Seto songs. Afterward, attendees shared a festive meal and lingered for leelo singing, music and dancing — no Seto party is complete without them.

Despite regional differences, the Seto language, folk dress and customs continue to connect Setos across borders. While some say Setos in Russia have increasingly assimilated, Torm-Kriis noted the same can be said of Setos in Estonia.

"But during talsipühä, everyone comes together as one community — and that is what matters most," she concluded.

Holiday of their own

On the Estonian side, as many around them already move on from the holidays after the New Year, Saarekivi and Berg both eagerly await their second Christmas.

For both teens, it continues to mean family, food, quality time and yet another chance to don their own Seto folk dress — black and navy wool overdresses over white linen shirts with billowing, ornately decorated sleeves, colorful headdresses and their signature silver hõpõkraam at their necks.

"For me, Christmas feels big and shared — a big, noisy holiday full of togetherness, that belongs to everyone," said Berg. "Talsipühä is the opposite: quiet, more intimate. It's the heart of winter, with no need for big gestures."

Even now, as Saarekivi navigates another winter of several overlapping holiday traditions, she's glad talsipühä remains firmly among them.

"Our region's culture is finally stepping out from Christmas' shadow," Saarekivi said.

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