FolkCostume&Embroidery: Folk Costume and Embroidery of the island of Hiiumaa or Dagö, Estonia

Hello all,

Today I would like to talk about the costumes of Hiiumaa, an Island in the northwest of Estonia. This island is shaped rather like Crimea, with peninsulas at each of the cardinal points of the compass.

This last map shows the major islands of Estonia. The Islands form one of the four major ethnic regions of Estonia, along with West Estonia, North Estonia, and South Estonia. The folk costumes of the islands reflect this.

Hiiumaa is divided into four kihelkonna, or parishes: Reigi, Pühalepa, Käina and Emmaste, each of which occupies a quadrant of the island.

The major part of the inhabitants of the island have always been Estonian, but there used to be an ethnic Swedish minority in the north of the island of several thousand people. The island was politically controlled by Sweden, and Swedes have lived there since about 1300. The Swedes call this island Dagö.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiiumaa

At the end of the Great Northern War, Estonia was annexed by the Muscovite Empire. Those in the east of the island moved to the mainland, and eventually emigrated to Sweden. The Swedes who lived in Reigi, however were removed by Catherine 2 Romanov to Ukraine, forced to make the journey overland. There they founded the village of Gammalsvenskby near Zmijiwka, Beryslaw Raion of Kherson Oblast, where they remain to this day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gammalsvenskby

The folk costumes of the four parishes have much in common. I will cover them together and try to give distinctions as I go along.

The chemise, särk, is usually very simple, as in most of northern Estonia. Here this is a foundation garment and is not visible when fully dressed.

There is, however, another type of chemise worn here, called kurdussärk. This is made of strong linen with a bodice, and a sewn in skirt gathered at the waist. This uses the same cut as the regular skirt used on the island. For churchgoing and holidays, it was worn under the skirt.

For summer for everyday, this was worn with the apron, sleeves and belt as the only garment, as we see in these drawings. The first one shows women from Emmaste.

This second painting is by the Swedish - Estonian artist E. H. Schlichting.

The skirt, mustkuube, was originally sewn from dark wool, with a button down bodice. This was later replaced by wool with vertical stripes. The striped fabric was folded into the waist, with the same dark stripe always on the top of the fold. Different parishes had different striped patterns, and different base colors were worn on different occasions.

The following garment is from Käina.

This garment is from Emmaste

Yet later a dark band was added to the hem, with galloon stitched along the seam and colored seam binding on the hem.

Over the bodice, a blouse is worn called käised, or sleeves. This was originally of linen, embellished with white on white embroidery on cuffs and sleeves, and pleats on the body. It did not reach the waist, but hung freely above it. The front openings are closed with annular brooches.

This example is from Käina

This example is from Emmaste.

Later the sleeves were made of thin cotton, and embroidery and lace were added, especially to the bottom rear edge. In Pühalepa in particular, crotchet lace became very popular, and panels were even inserted in the middle of the käised bodies, and also the aprons.

This example is from Reigi

In general, the sleeves of the other parishes are less elaborately ornamented. Here is an example from Käina.

Other ornamentation was also used.

The aprons were made of linen, and later cotton. They tended to be simple rectangles, with some lace or embroidery added, or flounces in red cloth. Most are rather simple. Here are some examples from Emmaste.

In this image we can see Swedish influence in the use of the shoulder shawl.

In this image we see a very old solid color skirt.

In Pühalepa, as I stated above, crotchet lace became very popular. Women would work long ribbons of it, and then cut them into segments to be inserted into the bodies of the 'sleeves', and especially into the aprons.

The pattern woven sashes, so prevalent on the mainland, are rare in Hiiumaa. Some examples are known, however.

Instead, a leather belt with metal chains and fittings, vaskvöö, is worn. A knife sheath and decorative case hung from this as well as a collection of chains which hung behind. These, of course, are expensive, so not everyone could afford one.

In more recent times, there is a tendency to make the chains that hang behind more symmetrical, as we see at the head of the article.

As in most parts of Estonia, a short dark natural wool jacket, here called suurjäk, is worn. This is very plain, with perhaps only an edging on the front. Some examples from Emmaste. Here we see some influence from Swedish costume; The use of red edging and skirt color for normal dress, and blue and green for periods of mourning.

And some examples from Pühalepa.

And here is an example from Reigi.

A knitted version of this garment is also known, the laikuub. This was either dark blue or natural dark wool colored. The peplum was quite full and gathered into the body. It, like the above garment may be hooked closed, or more recently, have frog closures.

Here is a modern version which is much less full.

The long wool overcoat, the pikk-kuub, was worn here as well. Examples from Pühalepa.

Example from Reigi

Emmaste

And Käina. Note that here they have a version of this garment without sleeves.

The traditional headdresses were of various kinds.

The first is called palmik. This consists of two wide ribbons which fall behind, having stiffening rods across and being ornamented in various ways. The top of this garment is braided into the hair. This was red for ordinary times, blue for Lent and times of light mourning, and black for heavy mourning. The other types of head gear were worn over this as a base.

Today this is sometimes simplified, with the hanging ribbons being attached to a headband or cap.

Married women wore a linen cap over this, the tanu. This was shaped differently in the different parishes, and is the easiest way to distinguish women from the 4 parishes. Originally the cap was worn over the braids, but today is commonly simply attached to the front. Often today the tanu is ornamented simply with applique and beading, but older examples show a band of cross or outline stitch embroidery around the bottom.

When viewed from the front, the tanu of Käina is high and round.

This one is labelled Reigi, but is clearly of the Käina type.

In Emmaste, the tanu is still high, but the main front portion is rectangular.

In Pühalepa, the tanu is low, with a somewhat rounded top. It might be called crown shaped.

In Reigi, the tanu is high and trapezoidal, being ornamented with ribbons, etc. It is quite unlike those of the other three parishes.

In Reigi and Pühalepa the bridal crown, Penik, resembled this tanu, but was open on top, larger, more elaborate, had a rounder top behind, and had ribbons hanging behind. In earlier times simpler versions were worn by bridesmaids, and even earlier, girls wore this as a festive garment.

In Emmaste, the bridal crown is called seppel. It is cylindrical in shape, and ornamented with small glass blown balls and ribbons. It looks much like many German bridal crowns.

This bride above is wearing a pealinad, a white linen scarf that was formerly used for some religious and ceremonial occasions, but has mostly fallen out of use today.

This image shows a bride from Emmaste on the left, a man from Emmaste in the center, and a young wife from Reigi on the right.

One more type of headgear is the att. This was a type of hood usually made of wool for extreme weather, or sometimes of linen to protect the hair from dusty work.