Christmas Peace
It is Christmas, finally I like to add. This is the best time of the year, in my opinion. We have many traditions relating to Christmas and spending it. The traditions vary quite much depending from what part of Finland the ancestors are. And of course quite many people spend their Christmas making new traditions of their own.
In Finland the Santa Claus visits on Christmas Eve. Maybe because he lives here and likes to start his journey from his homeland. :) This post however is about the Christmas Peace.
Every year on the 24th of December the Christmas Peace is declared in Turku, the old capital of Finland. There is markings, that the Christmas peace has been declared in Turku as early as in the 1320s. Nowadays text and tradition date back to the 17th century, when queen Christina of Sweden-Finland gave her declaration to the citizens of Turku.
The ceremony is started with a psalm (Jumala ompi linnamme), which original text was written by Martin Luther (Martti Luther). It has been sung in the beginning of the Declaration from the early 20th century and was first sung as protest in the most difficult years of Russian regime’s oppression against the Finns. The declaration is given after the clock of the Dome of Turku has stricken 12. The declaration is read in Finnish and in Swedish. Then our national anthem Maamme-laulu is sung both in Finnish and in Swedish, after which the marching band of the Navy (Laivaston soittokunta) plays the March of the Men of Pori (Porilaisten marssi). The Christmas Peace is supposed to last until the 13th of January, which is celebrated as the day of Nuutti (Nuutin päivä) in Finland.
Only few times during the century the Christmas Peace has not been declared. That has always happen due to the threat of war or other danger. These times have been in the 18th century during the Greater Wrath, when Finland was occupied by the Russian Empire’s troops for many years, in year 1808 due to the Finnish War, in 1917, when the nation had just declared her independency and was on her way to civil war and in 1939, when the Finnish troops were forced to start a counter-attack in the front line against the Soviet Union’s troops on the Christmas Eve.
The whole event is broadcasted in our national TV and also in Radio. Nowadays it can even be followed on the web. It is very widely followed by the Finns.
My Christmas starts from the Declaration of Christmas Peace.
I wish you all a Merry and White Christmas!
The psalm
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumala_ompi_linnamme (in Finnish)
Maamme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maamme (in English)
Porilaisten marssi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porilaisten_marssi (in English)
The Christmas Peace declaration in 1962 in Turku
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti