Ancient Bonfires organizer: Three fires reported from the US this year

Mairold Vaik, organizer of the Night of Ancient Bonfires, spoke to Vikerraadio about the tradition's history and this year's event both in Estonia and abroad.

The custom began in the early 1990s, when two friends — one on the Tahkuna Peninsula on Hiiumaa and one near Turku, Finland — agreed to light bonfires at the same time and send good thoughts to each other across the sea. Vaik said what drew him to the tradition, which he learned about a few years later, was the sense of unity it creates.

A map of bonfires, including from abroad

Since 2009, Vaik has been collecting reports of bonfires from acquaintances and mapping them on a dedicated website. What started as a simple Google Maps listing has had its own site for several years. The current list includes around 50 public bonfires and another 45-50 private ones — just over 100 in total — though Vaik estimates the real number could be about ten times higher, since the map has become less popular than the event itself.

This year, three reports came in from Estonians in the United States who are gathering to mark the evening together. Reports also arrived from Latvia, Sweden and Finland, including one from the eastern shore of the Gulf of Finland.

Rain rarely interferes

Vaik noted that no one dictates the right way to celebrate the night, just as with Midsummer — in his experience, the best bonfire is one's own, shared with a small circle of familiar people.

Events have never been canceled due to rain, and by Vaik's estimate, rain has fallen somewhere in Estonia on the evening of the bonfires only twice in the past 18 years. This year a brief shower is possible on the western islands, but no rain is forecast for the mainland. The bonfires are lit at sunset on the last Saturday of August, which falls on August 29 this year.