Kihnu is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. With an area of it is the largest island in the

Gulf of Riga The Gulf of Riga, Bay of Riga, or Gulf of Livonia ( lv, Rīgas līcis, et, Liivi laht) is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. The island of Saaremaa (Estonia) partially separates it from the rest of the Baltic Sea. The main con ...

and the seventh largest island of

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. The length of the island is and width , the highest point is at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. The island belongs to the

Pärnu County Pärnu County ( et, Pärnu maakond or ''Pärnumaa''; german: Kreis Pernau) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in the south-western part of the country, on the coast of Gulf of Riga, and borders Lääne and Rapla counties to the nor ...

. Together with neighbouring islands it forms

Kihnu Parish Kihnu Parish ( et, Kihnu vald) is a rural municipality of Estonia, in Pärnu County. The parish covers the 16.88 km² area of Kihnu island, making it one of the smallest parishes in Estonia. As of 2010, Kihnu Parish had an estimated population ...

, one of the smallest

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of the country with an area of . 604 people live on Kihnu , 69 of whom are primary school pupils. There are four villages:

Lemsi Lemsi is one of the four villages on the island of Kihnu, in southwestern Estonia. (retrieved 28 July 2021) Administratively it belongs to Kihnu Parish, Pärnu County Pärnu County ( et, Pärnu maakond or ''Pärnumaa''; german: Kreis Pernau) i ...

Linaküla Linaküla is one of the four villages on the island of Kihnu, in southwestern Estonia. (retrieved 28 July 2021) Administratively it belongs to Kihnu Parish, Pärnu County. The village occupies the western coast of the island. In 2000, Linaküla h ...

, Rootsiküla and Sääre. One can reach Kihnu by a 15-minute plane trip from

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet o ...

or by ferry, with trips taking 3 hours from Pärnu and 1 hour from

Manilaid Manilaid is a Estonian islet in the Gulf of Riga, located between the island of Kihnu and the mainland's Tõstamaa peninsula. Together with the neighbouring smaller uninhabited islets Sorgu and Annilaid, Manilaid forms the village of Manija. ...

. When the sea is frozen in winter, it is possible to drive to the island over the ice. The nearby isle of

(or Manija, ''Manõja'' in the Kihnu dialect) was inhabited by people from Kihnu since 1933 and thus shares its culture.

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

proclaimed Kihnu's cultural space and traditions as a

Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness of intangible cultural heritage and encourage local communities to protect them and th ...

on November 7, 2003. Kihnu is also called ''Kihnumua'' (e.g. "Kihnuland") in the

local dialect Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

. Names in other languages include ''Ķīļu'' in Latvian, ''Kynö'' in Standard Swedish, ''Kin'' in

Estonian Swedish Estonian Swedish ( sv, estlandssvenska; et, rannarootsi keel, lit=Coastal Swedish) are the eastern varieties of Swedish that were spoken in the formerly Swedish-populated areas of Estonia (locally known as ''Aiboland'') on the islands of Orms� ...

, and historically ''Kühnö'' in German. In

Estonian Sign Language Estonian Sign Language ( et, eesti viipekeel, EVK) is the national sign language of Estonia. History and character Research into the origins and nature of EVK did not begin until the late 1980s, so many details remain unknown. Ulrike Zeshan ...

, the island is signed by imitating the vertical stripes of a Kihnu skirt. There are various theories on the etymology of the name Kihnu, with no consensus. The earliest recorded version of the island's name is ''Kyne'', from

1386 Year 1386 ( MCCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * February 24 – Elizabeth of Bosnia, the mother of the overthrown Queen Mary of ...

Culture

As the men of Kihnu have been frequently away to sea, women have run everyday life on the island and became the guardians of the island's cultural heritage, which includes handicrafts, dances, games and music. Music is an especially important part of the island's traditions, and accompanies handicrafts, religious feasts and other celebrations. Ancient runo-styled songs are also important, as is traditional clothing adorned with decorations and bright colours. There are elaborate wedding traditions, which are considered the "most complex and bright expression" of Kihnu culture. Kihnu is famous for its

handicrafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

and distinctive traditional clothing, which is still commonly worn today. It includes striped skirts (''kört''), and patterned

knit Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine. Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...

men's sweaters (''troi''), and knit mittens. Young women have traditionally organised evening get-togethers (''ülalistmine'', i.e. "sitting (staying) up (late)") to do handicrafts. Traditional cuisine includes

rye bread Rye bread is a type of bread made with various proportions of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat f ...

with potatoes,

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...

fat or

Baltic herring Atlantic herring (''Clupea harengus'') is a herring in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species in the world. Atlantic herrings can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. They can ...

added to the dough;

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

soup, prepared by fishermen; and sweet milk soup, an important dish in weddings.

Seal hunting Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. Seal hunting is currently practiced in ten countries: United States (above the Arctic Circle in Alaska), Canada, Namibia, Denmark (in self-governing Greenland only), Ice ...

is practiced in Kihnu, and their

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

is considered a delicacy. Another distinctive delicacy is the eggs of semi-domesticated

mergansers ''Mergus'' is the genus of the typical mergansers , fish-eating ducks in the subfamily Anatinae. The genus name is a Latin word used by Pliny the Elder and other Roman authors to refer to an unspecified waterbird. The common merganser (''Merg ...

(waterbirds), also used for baking cakes. In the 19th and early 20th century, numerous men from Kihnu became sailors. The most famous of them was the largely self-taught captain

Enn Uuetoa Enn Uuetoa (also known as Kihnu Jõnn; 1848–1913) was a notorious Estonian ship captain. Uuetoa was born on the island of Kihnu. He was known as a ship captain who was able to command large ships without the use of either a compass or a sextan ...

, also known as ''Kihnu Jõnn'' (1848 – 1913; ''Jõnn'' is the local pronunciation of the name Enn).

Language

The

Kihnu dialect Kihnu is an island in the Baltic Sea. With an area of it is the largest island in the Gulf of Riga and the seventh largest island of Estonia. The length of the island is and width , the highest point is at above sea level. The island belongs t ...

is considered to belong to the insular dialect group of

North Estonian Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language, written in the Latin script. It is the official language of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken natively by about 1.1 million people; 922,000 people in Estonia and 160, ...

, along with the dialects of

Saaremaa Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the island i ...

Muhu Muhu (also called Muhumaa in Estonian), is an island in the West Estonian archipelago of the Baltic Sea. With an area of it is the third largest island belonging to Estonia, after Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. Together with neighbouring smaller isl ...

and

Hiiumaa Hiiumaa (, ) is the second largest island in Estonia and is part of the West Estonian archipelago, in the Baltic Sea. It has an area of 989 km2 and is 22 km from the Estonian mainland. Its largest town is Kärdla. It is located within H ...

. It is unusual among North Estonian dialects in preserving

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...

, like most other

Finnic languages The Finnic (''Fennic'') or more precisely Balto-Finnic (Balto-Fennic, Baltic Finnic, Baltic Fennic) languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 mi ...

. The dialect includes

triphthong In phonetics, a triphthong (, ) (from Greek τρίφθογγος, "triphthongos", literally "with three sounds," or "with three tones") is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel qu ...

s. There are

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

influences in vocabulary and intonation.

Geography and climate

The island has a sandy interior and a

rocky coast A cliffed coast, also called an abrasion coast, is a form of coast where the action of marine waves has formed steep cliffs that may or may not be precipitous. It contrasts with a flat or alluvial coast. Formation In coastal areas in whic ...

made up of more than fifty islets which make up an important nesting ground for birds. Along the

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

beach ridge A beach ridge is a wave-swept or wave-deposited ridge running parallel to a shoreline. It is commonly composed of sand as well as sediment worked from underlying beach material. The movement of sediment by wave action is called ''littoral tra ...

s and sands of the eastern part the island reaches its maximum height of 29.6 m above sea level.

Images of Kihnu

Kihnu lighthouse2.jpg, Kihnu church.JPG, File:Kihnu-KYL%C3%84KAUPPA.jpg, File:Seashore of Kihnu.jpg, File:Kihnu muuseum.jpg, Villageroad.JPG, Garden in Kihnu.JPG, Kihnu rannik 1.JPG, Kihnu girls.JPG, Kihnu männik.JPG, Kihnu kalmistu4.jpg, Hallhüljes Kihnu hoiualal.JPG,

References

External links

Kihnu cultural space360-Degree Aerial Panorama of Kihnu
{{Authority control Kihnu Parish Estonian islands in the Baltic Landforms of Pärnu County Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity