Dear song and dance celebration participants, dear Estonia,
Everything is founded on love. Even if we cannot carry this special feeling, spirit and atmosphere of the Song and Dance Celebration into our everyday lives, we can take with us the burning love that lies underneath it all. We can take with us this unity. And we must.
We do not have to be united in everything, but in things that matter. We must be united in our will to sustain our country. We must be united in our wish to preserve our language and culture.
We must be united in our wish to protect and respect all people with whom we share our small Estonia. Because this is the only Estonia we have and we are here together. All of this is founded on love for another and our land. A land where Jakob Hurt's truth holds true: we do not live by bread alone.
We need something besides bread to give meaning to work and school, arguments in our daily lives and worries about the future of our nation. Something elusive. Something greater. Something holy and beyond the ordinary just like our fatherland. Only we can consider this land holy, keep it holy and make it holy through our songs.
I would like to thank everyone who has helped to make this year’s youth celebration a success, from the artistic directors, organisers, conductors and dance directors to the parents who stayed up late last night ironing their children’s national costumes, the chefs who made soup for the celebration and the bus drivers who will take the participants home safely later today.
This is the Estonian miracle that is reborn every day out of our united wish, founded on love.
May our holy land live forever!
