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   The Traditional Christmas Market in Tallinn07.September 2012
) ) Christmas markets in east and central Europe have been around for centuries. But not in Tallinn. In fact, the Jouluturg on Tallinn’s Raekoja Plats (Raekoja Square) is barely out of its teens. During the Soviet era, Santa Claus was banned. As soon as Estonia gained independence in 1991, the city organized its first Christmas market. The market may be relatively new, but Tallinn is a medieval city. Raekoja Square is very romantic, surrounded by Hanseatic buildings, including a pharmacy from 1422, still in operation.
The main items on the market are Estonian arts and crafts, hand-made sweaters, long-tailed hats, mittens, scarves, socks and other colourful woollens. Can’t make it to Tallinn before Christmas? No worries, the Christmas Markets remain until 8 January. And the lovely woollens are for sale outdoors for much of the winter. (These photos are from late January; sadly I didn’t have a camera along last time I visited Tallinn in December – but you get the idea.)
There’s something delightfully pagan about Tallinn. Fitting then, that the citizens of the then-named city of Reval danced around the first Christmas tree in recorded history. The year was 1441 and Estonia was part of the German region Livonia. Up a street from Raekoja Square is 700-year-old cobbled Rataskaevu, the spookiest street in town. As you pass no 16, look up. Notice the bricked up window with painted-on curtains? In the 15th century, this was an inn. Rumour has it the devil got married and had the wedding reception here.
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