Paper short abstract:

This presentation provides an overview of using religion in Estonian museum exhibitions and discusses various aspects of how religion appears or does not appear in display.

Paper long abstract:

Religion has never been an essential subject in Estonian museum exhibitions. Instead, the museums have tried to demonstrate the real life of people and thus the exhibitions demonstrate macro-historical events and aspects of folk culture. Following the broader political and ideological trends in Estonia, the Christian church has been portrayed as an alien while the folk religion associates with primitive and old-fashioned relicts of past.

The aim of this presentation is to map the main trends in how religion appears in Estonian museology since the beginning of the 20th century: if religion exists at all, what are the key-elements of religion in displays and how are these tendencies reflected in creating museum collections? Are there any conceptual differences between eras prior and after the Soviet atheist campaign or how is the modern label of 'Estonia being the least religious country in Europe' reflected in museum exhibitions?