Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Teeme ära - Spring Clean, Estonia!

Suured talgud üle Eesti!




Teeme ära -  Let's Do It!
From www.teemeara.ee: "In 2008 people gathered together to clean Estonia from illegal garbage, in 2009 people gathered together to generate good ideas and in 2010 there were several different bees (Estonian: talgud) all over Estonia. In 2010 every community, organisation or active citizen decided by themselves what needed to be done and asked other people to join according to that. There were 1130 bees in the year 2010 all over Estonia - in the end 31 299 people took part of the events!"

This year's Super Bee is scheduled for May 7th, 2011 -  bee committee registration has already started on the 15th of March. Registration of participants starts on 11th of April.

You can also share your experience online, connect with others and make new friends! Go to the Lugude section and  read wonderful stories from last year, watch the clips!


What is the origin of the word talgud
The Estonian word talgud can be traced back to the Finnish-Swedish root talkoIn Finnsh, a volunteer community effort is referred to as talkoot, in Russian toloka and in Danish dugnad. It's interesting to discover that the Cherokee language has a similar word: gadugi.

The word bee was used in the United States in the mid-18th century - and is not related to the organized chaos of a beehive, as one might think! Instead it meant "gathering", whether for work, pleasure or competition. Spelling bees, spinning bees and quilting bees come to mind.


Bee has been traced back to the English word for prayer and good deeds, bene, also spelled beanOver time it came to mean "help from neighbours"; however it also had a very negative connotation in the 18th century - "lynching bee". Read the full story at Phrase Thesarus (UK) - try the Famous Last Words Section for fun!

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