100 stories from the hiking route

1942 – a cross in remembrance of Albert Kendra is cut on the Kadõn Pine of Crosses

Information

Topic

People and nature

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 57.6597389

Longitude: 26.880022

L-EST 97

x: 6394527.3
y: 671878.3

Location

Ähijärve-Aegviidu Hiking route

Albert Kendra was born in 1883. He graduated from a Finnish school of agriculture in 1909 and thereafter worked as a seneschal in Russia. Albert Kendra also worked as the land readjustment instructor of the ministry of agriculture in Võru County and as a teacher at the Vigala School of Agriculture after Estonia gained its independence. In 1938, he was elected into the parliament from the 76th electoral district formed in Võru County with 2,720 votes.
In 1941, Albert Kendra was arrested, taken to Siberia and executed at the Sosva prison camp. A cross was cut into the Kadõn Pine of Crosses in his memory in 1942.
Trees of crosses are part of the old funeral customs that are still followed today in South-Eastern Estonia, especially in the Old-Võru County. Cutting a cross into a tree on the last journey of the deceased from their home to the graveyard is only one of the funeral rituals. The cross is usually cut by a male relative.
The location of the tree of crosses depends on the landscape, but it usually denotes the subconscious or conscious border, after the crossing of which loved ones bid the deceased farewell for good – they are no longer part of the living. Forests of crosses are usually located in the immediate vicinity of graveyards or by the so-called church roads. People usually try to cut the crosses of close relatives on the same tree. The tree of crosses has to be aesthetically pleasing: a beautiful healthy tree that can be seen well from the road. The preferred tree is the pine because you can see the crosses cut into the bark of the pine for a long time.
The trees of crosses cannot be felled or harmed in any way. Whoever fails to follow the rules – either due to ignorance or intentionally – is believed to be punished for it.