A brief summary of the events of Estonian folklorists from July to December 2025.

From 3–5 October 2025 the sixth conference in the series “The Balkans and the Baltics in a United Europe: religion, history and culture” was held in Sofia. Mila Maeva recalls the conference.

From 14 March to 31 August an exhibition entitled “The Mei Sisters: Avant-garde and Ordinary Life” was mounted at KUMU, the Estonian Museum of Art. In the last hours before it closed, it was possible to enjoy the exhibition with the competent guidance of curators Ulrika Jõemägi and Kai Stahl. Also, at the initiation of folklorist Piret Voolaid, a panel discussion took place entitled “A Pencil Sharpened by Laughter: Humour as freedom in the works of the Mei Sisters”, which included curators Eha Komissarov and Kai Stahl and the animator, writer and caricaturist Ave Taavet.

On 24 October, a festive seminar in the hall of the Estonian Language Institute marked the 90th birthday of Pille Kippar. Meetings and conversations with her are remembered by colleagues and friends.

Children live in a relational environment, which is why the quality of these relationships is crucial to their well-being. If these relationships break down, it can negatively impact a child’s emotional and social development, which may manifest itself in their behaviour. The state tries to address the issue of children whose behaviour threatens their own and/or others’ well-being, life and health by offering various interventions, including, as a last resort, the placement of children in a closed institution. Closed children’s institutions have been part of various Estonian state systems for over a hundred years. During this time, Estonia has experienced three regime changes, each based on different ideological, value-based and political principles. Each regime has developed its own ideology regarding children and their behavioural difficulties, as well as methods for addressing them. This has shaped the rules for operating closed children’s institutions. With its formal relationship model and living arrangements, a closed children’s institution belongs to the category of total institutions. In this article, we focus on changes in the perception of children and language use to reflect society’s attitude towards behavioural difficulties in children during different historical periods. Based on the theory of total institutions, we analyse how characteristics such as rigid hierarchy, formal relationships and control-centred education have persisted or changed in closed children’s institutions over the last hundred years.

The article introduces the special features of Ersa bee-keeping from the early days up till 2023, along with food and drink associated with honey and mythological figures connected with honey and bees. As a food honey holds an important position in folk customs, particularly with respect to memorial and holiday foods. Attention is also directed to Ersa folk holidays and features of their restoration during recent decades both in Mordva and Estonia. The research showed that the seasonality of holidays is connected to natural circumstances and the cycles of bee-keeping: the dominant period is summer, when the main honey gathering takes plac along with related rituals. The collected data shows that honey and wax fulfill many interconnected functions in Ersa culture – economic, sacral and social. From forest bee-keeping to frame bee-keeping, the bee and its products have been an important part of the economy and exchange; at the same time they have become rooted in rituals as clean and holy substances, which connect people with their ancestors and protective deities (Niškepaz, Niškeava, Mekšava). Folk customs – beginning with the offering of honey and honey beer (pure) at memorials up to the raising of the wax candle štatol – structure the calendar and the life cycle and confirm the cohesion of the community. Important features include persistent syncretism: pre-Christian customs (sacrifices, prayers at beehives, turning toward nature gods) and Orthodox practices (Elia’s Day, the blessing of the honey) coexist and mutually interpret one another. One can observe both the preservation of archaic meanings (belief in the connection of bees to the world of the gods and souls of the ancestors) and their contemporary adaptations – people’s prayer meetings (Rasken ozks), the preservation of traditions in the diaspora, joint gathering of wax for the štatoli and the use of the Ersa language in prayers. Field work in the areas of Ardatov and Bolšoje Ignatovo and in Estonian Ersa communities confirm spatio-temporal continuity and local variations. Today one encounters some customs more rarely, but the key symbols – honey as the first food of commemoration and the štatol as the sign of the continuation of a family tree, retain their significance. Future research might be focused on a comparison of the Ersa and Moksha bee-keeping cults, documenting their contemporary changes and the role of bee-keepiong in the shaping of collective identity in the 21st century Ersa community.

From 18–23 August 2025 the 14th International Fenno-Ugristics Congress or CIFU – Congressus Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum was held in Tartu. Nikolai Kuznetsov gives an overview of the congress.

Colleagues congratulate her and summarise her life work.

As we can see, Tukultī-Ninurta’s ambitious imperialist policies and expansionism were expressed in his propaganda and ideological-political manifestation and programme, one part of which can be considered the official titles and epithets of the Assyrian king. Some of these titles are universalistic, indicating the king’s desire to rule over the whole known world, while others are territorial, indicating the Assyrian ruler’s desire to control a particular region/land/which he conquered, such as “king of Karduniaš” (šar māt Karduniaš) or “king of Sumer and Akkad” (šar māt Šumeri u Akkadî). Thus, during the reign of Tukultī-Ninurta I, the Assyrian royal titulary consisted of many different components, of titles and epithets of very different geographical, political, geopolitical and temporal origins (Early Dynastic III period, Akkad period, Ur III period, Old Babylonian epoch and Kassite period). All of these various southern and northern Mesopotamian traditions were incorporated into a Middle Assyrian tradition at this time. The following titles and epithets (only some are exemplified here) were used by no other ruler before him: - šar ḫuršāni u namê rapŝūti – “king of wide mountains and plants”. - šar šarrāni – “king of all kings”. - maḫir bilti kabitti ša kibrāt arbaˀi ina āl Aššur – “the receiver of the tribute from four regions of the world in Assur”. - šamšu kiššat nišē – “sun/sun god of all people” (invention of Tukultī-Ninurta I, modification of the title of Shalmaneser I – šar kiššat nišē – “the king of all people”). - Tukultī-Ninurta I also used traditional universalistic titles such as šar kiššati - “king of the world” and šar kibrāt arbaˀi – “king of the four corners”. This second šar kibrāt arbaˀi (invention from the Akkad period) was used by him as the first among the Assyrian rulers. In Babylonia, this title was not foreign and was used for a long time. It was not until the time of Tukultī-Ninurta I that it came to Assyria. - After the conquest of Babylonia, Tukultī-Ninurta I also used geopolitical titles with reference to the newly conquered land such as šar māt Karduniaš – “King of the Land of Karduniaš” (title of the Kassite kings), šar māt Šumeri u Akkadî – “King of the Land of Sumer and Akkad” (title of the New Sumerian, then Babylonian and Kassite kings), šar Sippar u Bābili – “King of Sippar and Babylon” (ancient Babylonian title), šar tâmti elīti u šupalīti – “King of the Upper and Lower Seas” (universalistic title, known already since Lugalzagesi’s and Sargon’s times). Tukultī-Ninurta’s death was followed by processes of decentralization and disintegration of the Middle Assyrian Empire. In terms of power politics, this event was also reflected in the titles of his successors. In the course of approximately 80-90 years following the death of Tukultī-Ninurta I, from 1206/1205 to 1115 BC, Assyrian kings relinquished a significant portion of Tukultī-Ninurta I’s titles and epithets (especially the universalistic ones) and only king Tiglath-pileser I (1115-1076 BC) restored them (for a short time) as a mightiness of the Middle Assyrian empire as well. Finally, later in the Neo-Assyrian period (10-7th centuries BCE), many of these titles and epithets were actively used and emphasized again by several Neo-Assyrian kings (e.g., Shalmaneser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal).

On 31 October 2025 the seventh student humanities conference HUNTS was held at the Estonian National Museum, aimed toward students in grades 8–12 who speak Estonian and other languages. The seven years of the conference are summarised by its organisers, Ave Goršič, Kristiina Punga ja Virve Tuubel.