Easter is closing up and we Finns are really good at sending postcards.
First some figures to give base to which compare. There are ca. 5,4 million people living in Finland. We have about 9,3 million cellular subscriptions and annually we send 3,8 billion SMS.
And annually Finns send approx. 65 million postcards. For Christmas we send around 50 million postcards. We are one of the leading countries in sending Christmas postcards. The Finnish Post (Posti) hires annually 3 000 seasonal helpers just to sort the Christmas cards.
Finns also send around 1,6 million Easter cards and they claim that this tradition is slowly vanishing. Maybe so, but really slowly. :) My family sends 36 Christmas cards and 10 Easter cards annually.
First Finnish postcards were made in the late 19th century. Finland got own stamp in year 1856, which was something really historical as Finland at that time was not independent but part of Russia as Grand Duchy of Finland. The Finland enjoyed quite high degree autonomy and the stamps were granted to Finland by Emperor/Tsar of Russia and Grand Prince of Finland Alexander II (Aleksanteri II). In 1890 post manifest was published. It was part of Russian regime's plan to narrow Finland’s autonomy. So after that for almost 30 years all the post in Finland had Russian stamps until 1917.
Nowadays the postcards can be send either in 1st or 2nd class. There is also special price for Christmas cards, if one sends the cards before certain date. Most of the stamps are for 1st or 2nd class. They are also called as forever stamps. At the moment the 1st class’ value is 1,10 euros. With that stamp one can send postcard in Finland or all over the world.
Finnish stamps now available you find from here
and stamps ever printed in Finland from here.
If you are interested in statistics, more Finland in Figures you find from here.
