For centuries St. Martin's Day has been one of the most important and cherished days in the Estonian folk calendar. It remains popular today, especially amongst young people and the rural population. St. Martin’s Day celebrates the end of the agrarian year and the beginning of the winter period. It also often marks the end of the period of all souls.

Originating in France, the tradition of celebrating St. Martin's Day spread to Germany in the 16th century and later to Scandinavia the Baltics. In Estonia, St. Martin’s Day signifies the merging of Western European customs with the local Balto-Finnic pagan tradition, containing elements of earlier worship of the dead, as well as certain year-end features of pre-Christianity.

St. Martin's Day actually has two meanings: in the vegetation calendar it marks the beginning of the natural winter, but in the economic calendar it is seen as the end of autumn. Among Estonians, St. Martin's Day also marks the end for the period of all souls, as well as the partition time in the Estonian popular calendar, a period in autumn when the souls of the ancestors were worshipped.

Like St. Michael's Day, celebrated on September 29, St. Martin's Day is also known as the celebration for the end of working in the field and the beginning of period of harvesting the crops and souring the cabbage. Following these holidays, women traditionally moved their work indoors for the winter, while men would proceed to work in the forests.

Customs

Estonia’s St. Martin's Day customs are connected foremost with those of Halloween, which is widely celebrated in other European countries. St. Martinus himself was considered the patron of beggars, and this has contributed to the West European custom of begging for charitable gifts on this day. In Estonia, children often go from house to house on St. Martin’s Day, singing their St. Martin's Day songs and wishing households good luck for crops, cattle, and the household in general.

Because the day honours a male saint, in the past groups of men have also gone door-to-door, with at least one disguised as a woman.

The most cherished time for going door-to-door is St. Martin's Eve, when traditionally the leader was a male, called the Martin Elder, or Elder Saint. Masks of animals, such as bears, goats and rams have been common in both Estonia and the rest of Europe on this night.

In the Estonian folklore archives some 1,500 variations of Martin and Catharine songs have been collected, which indicates the extraordinary significance of this type of ritual song and its endurance in the tradition of celebrated days. At the same time, the begging tradition has grown in popularity and has been adopted by ethnic minorities living in Estonia, like the coastal Swedes and Russians who lived at the eastern border on the shores of Lake Peipus.

The customary culmination of the holiday is the St. Martin's Day supper, which is involves many rich foods, especially meat products. In Western Europe people eat goose, which has been depicted as the bird of St. Martins’ in sacral pictures since 1171. However, the tradition of eating goose on this holiday is mainly enjoyed only by the wealthy in Estonia. Most Estonians instead eat other types of birds, such as chickens. Some also ate pigs and sheep for St. Martin's Day. It is also common to eat grain, flour or blood sausage on St. Martin's Eve in Estonia.

St. Martin's Party, the entertainment portion of St. Martin's Night, has traditionally been the culmination of the activities. The event is elaborate, filled with traditional folk dances, musical performances and games. At the same time, sharing and using the commonly gathered St. Martin's harvest takes place. In some districts of the country, such as in Läänemaa, the St. Martin's Party also includes the theatrical St. Martin's Wedding, an imitation wedding with a couple in disguise as bride and groom.

Despite the half-century of Soviet occupation in Estonia, St. Martin's Day has retained its historical significance, and cultural traditions, and therefore still remains popular today, especially amongst Estonia’s young and rural populations.