On Sunday, villages in the area will unveil this year's munaloomka, egg-rolling track – a circuit made out of sand and dedicated solely to the colorful, revolving ovoid high jinks.

A munaloomka is horseshoe-shaped, and colorful, pre-dyed eggs are rolled down along it – strike a competitor's egg en route and you get to keep it, with the winner declared as the person with the biggest egg stack at the race's end.

The Värska farm museum, for instance, is holding an egg race at its "Lihavõtte lugu Setomaal" ("The Easter story in Setomaa") event, though note this takes place on Saturday, April 11, from 11 am to 1 p.m. and will showcase other great Seto Easter traditions in addition to the great race: Pie making, tea consumption, the dyeing of eggs – a very particular skill – as well as other arts and crafts.

Then on Sunday, the great egg races get really underway, for example at noon in the yard of the Värska kultuurimaja community center and in the courtyard of the Taarka Tarõ restaurant in Obinitsa, as well as at the kiiking grounds in Mikitamäe, while the village of Uusvada hosts its race a little later, at 1 p.m. on Easter Day.

To take part, all you need to do is bring along your own dyed eggs.

Setomaa is a historically culturally distinct region in southeastern Estonia, including in territory which is within the Treaty of Tartu national border and is currently occupied by the Russian Federation.

Eastern Orthodoxy usually follows the Julian calendar, meaning both Christmas and Easter, and other Christian festivals, fall on different and usually later dates.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and X and never miss an update!