Tomorrow we are having 1st advent, which is often called in Finland Little Christmas (= pikkujoulu). It also starts a new liturgical year.
As mentioned before we Finns are not so church going people. Very few of us visit church weekly or even monthly, but on Christmas, Eastern and 1st advent many Finns attend a service in their local church. The highlight on 1st advent’s service is singing of Hosianna, Davids son (Hoosianna), psalm 1 in Finnish psalm book.
Words in Finnish can be found here.
and psalm song by Tapiolan kuoro from here.
There are also lot more traditions related to this weekend. Those depend very much once again of our roots and of course every family have their own traditions. In my family it has been a tradition for at least last 4 generations to decorate a small Christmas tree (pikkujoulukuusi) on first advent and bake the first plum jam filled mince pies (joulutorttu). Within this weekend our home will get its Christmas decoration, except the actual Christmas tree, which will be brought in and decorated on 21st of December on St. Thomas Day.
But this is also time for companies’ to arrange pre-Christmas parties for their employees. And friends to meet up and have pre-Christmas party. The party can be a dinner in a restaurant and afterparty in a disco or trip to Stockholm or Tallinn or maybe even to some Central-European city. Time to relax and have fun. And yes, some relax and have so much fun, than others can talk about it until the next pre-Christmas party. :) So tonight many of Finns dress-up and go out to celebrate the beginning of the Christmas season either with good friends or workmates.
Hyvää Pikkujoulua!
Have a nice 1st advent!
