The Home Cafe Days take place every August on Hiiumaa, when residents open their homes for three days to sell home-baked cakes, home-smoked fish and home-brewed beer. The festival combines family-friendly atmosphere, pop music and communal celebration of the short summer. Local participants view the event as vital for social cohesion amid regional tensions. Many islanders also join the Women's Voluntary Defense Organization (Naiskodukaitse) for training in safety, first aid, military skills, field catering and organizational history. Some trainees learn to handle weapons but prefer non-combat roles such as evacuations. Naiskodukaitse traces its roots to 1927 and is integrated into the national volunteer defense network.
The Home Cafe Days, or Kodukohvikute paevad in Estonian, are the summer highlight on the island of Hiiumaa. Every August, the residents of Estonia's second-largest Baltic Sea island open up their homes for three days and offer up home-baked cakes, home-smoked fish and home-brewed beer. They celebrate their short summer amid children's laughter and pop music. Ave Ungro, 44, thinks the festival is "extremely important," especially now in times of war.
Mainly because of the realization that the life we had known so far could no longer go on in the same way," she said. Ungro decided to shape her new life and prepare her family, her island and her country for a possible Russian attack. Since then, the speech therapist has spent 48 hours a year training with the Naiskodukaitse and has already completed five different programs: Safety, first aid, military skills, field catering and the history of the Estonian volunteer defense league.
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