November went by without a single blog post from me. Sorry. But now it is finally December.
As the independence day of Finland (6th of December) is already on this week and it happens that the so famous Saint Nicolaus is having his day on the same day, I decided to write about the Finnish Santa Claus (Joulupukki).
Well we know that the Santa Claus lives in the northern part of Finland, in Lapland (Lappi) on a fjeld (tunturi) called Korvatunturi (in English Earfjeld). He is accompanied there by his wife (joulumuori), the elfs or elves (tontut) and the reindeers (porot). The Christmas elfs (joulutontut), a very special type of elfs, help Santa to make all the presents. The Christmas elfs assist Santa also by spying on the children and making a list who has been nice and who has not been.
Santa visits our homes on Christmas Eve. We actually believe that he has only one reindeer pulling his sledge. Santa leaving Korvatunturi is shown on national TV every Christmas. You can even nowadays watch it from internet
On most of the Christmas’ we do not see Santa. We just hear him knock on the windows or door and then there the gifts are. He is so busy on Christmas Eve. But every year some of us get lucky and have Santa visiting their home. If we are not at home, we shall write Santa a note and leave it beside the Christmas tree, that please this year bring our presents to the following address. And imagine, he always delivers them in the right place.
Because Korvatunturi is located in the wilderness, Santa has moved some of his businesses to Rovaniemi, which is located right on the Polar circle. There is also Santa Claus Main Post Office. Read more about it here
Want to see Santa? Click to
As Christmas is a Christian celebration once again, when Christianity entered Finland the old and the new were mixed. We have always had elfs. They are really small, bearded men, who can be centuries old. People believed in those elfs really strongly even during Christianity. There was one elf living in the sauna, one in the stable, one in the barn and so on. When the household was nice to the elfs, the elfs took care of the wealth and well-being of the household. Though this mixing of legends and beliefs, a character called nuuttipukki was born. Somebody dressed as a mixture of goat and man and went from house to house on January 13 (Nuutinpäivä), begging for leftovers from Christmas. He took away the Christmas and the celebrating time was over. During centuries the Nuuttipukki was transformed to Joulupukki. Still in the 1970s some of the Santas visiting homes in Finland wore mask like the Nuuttipukki used to do. And even today if you are lucky and in Finland at the right time, you may meet Joulupukki on Christmas Eve or Nuuttipukki on January 13.
I wish you all a really nice December!
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