Finnish Lion

By Vzb83, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=560472

The Finnish ice hockey team just brought us medal from Moscow from the IIHF ice hockey WM. Yes, it is silver and we lost to Canada, so we Finns did not celebrate it as much as we would have celebrated gold. But hey, there are almost 5,5 million inhabitants in Finland and a bit over 35 million in Canada. The WM gold we have won twice, first time in 1995 and second in 2011. Canada has won gold 26 times. From the WMs we have also 8 silver medals and 3 bronze medals. Canada has 11 silver medals and 7 bronze medals.

But this post is not about our success - or Canada’s - in ice hockey, it is about the name of the team. The Finns have called the national men’s ice hockey team Lions (Leijonat) so long I can remember, which of course is only about 35 - 40 years. Watching the games played in Saint Petersburg and in Moscow I got curious about our team’s name. How long have they played with our coat of arms’ lion on their jerseys? Is this a genuine tradition?

The team played for the first time with the lion that appears in the coat of arms of Finland on their jerseys in the 1948 against Czechoslovakia. Leijonat was born. The ice hockey team had played its first international match already in 1928 and lost to Sweden, but back then jersey didn’t have the lion on it.

But why then lion in the coat of arms of Finland? Finland is situated in the northern parts of Europe and the polar circle crosses our country. In these latitudes we only see lions in the zoo. Yet we still have it on our coat of arms.

The reason why we have it there is still pure speculation. But first time it was officially seen marking Finland in the 1580s on the burial monument of Swedish king Gustav Vasa, when the monument was revealed in the Uppsala cathedral in Sweden. After that the kings and queens of Sweden used it to describe Finland as part of Sweden until 1809, when Finland became a grand duchy of the Russian Empire. Even during the Russian regime Finland was referred to with this emblem and the new nation took it as her national arms in 1917, when declaring her independence. 

It is thought that lion comes from the ancient kings of Sweden. Those, who belonged to the Folkunga family. One of the members of that family, Valdemar Magnusson, was a duke of Finland in the beginning of 1300s and he used the first version of the Finnish lion in his coat of arms. We also should remember that the first demarcation between Sweden and Russia (or Novgorod), being also the first time to identify Finland’s eastern borderline, was drawn in the peace of Pähkinäsaari in 1323. But why a lion? Why not a bear or a wolf to describe the eastern parts of Sweden back then?

Lion is an animal used in heraldry since ancient times. It has been a mark of power and very much used in the coat of arms of nobels during medieval times and even before. That would explain the Folkunga family part. The sculptor or maker of Gustav Vasa’s monument was Willem Boy. He was from Flander in Belgium and Flander’s emblem is also lion.

I think we will never find out the actual reason to use lion to describe Finland. I personally suspect that it comes from many different occasions. Still it has been used as the symbol of Finland for centuries. We can be proud of it and also of our ice hockey team, Leijonat!

http://leijonat.fi/

By MiRoWaLTTeRi - I made this picture from scratch using Adobe Photoshop.Previously published: http://s1272.beta.photobucket.com/user/MiRoWaLTTeRi/media/Finland-National-Ice-Hockey-Team-Jersey.png.html, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22965224

Winter vacation / Hiihtoloma

When I’m writing this, on week 8, the school children of Southern parts of Finland have a winter vacation (talviloma). School children in central parts have their vacation on week 9 and children in northern parts on week 10.

Nowadays quite many people travel also abroad to sun and warmth during this vacation, but still major part of the population having winter vacation spend it downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, skating and in other winter activities. That is why the vacation is spend during three weeks in Finland. Otherwise the skiing resorts, especially in the notrhern parts of Finland, would be totally crowded. Even with this system the week 8 and 9 are fully booked in those resorts. Place in the car-train taking cars and passengers up north has to be booked almost a year before.

Winter vacation is also called skiing vacation (hiihtoloma) in Finland. The school children in Finland have had this vacation officially since 1933, when the administration of schooling accepted it as part of syllabus.

The idea was introduced already in 1926 by a teacher Santeri Hirvonen from Kouvola. He wrote in magazine, that the Finnish school children should have one week skiing vacation, because when skiing the children would get fresh air and endurance for the rest of the school year. The idea was taken forward by Lauri Pihkala, who we Finnish also know as the “father” of pesäpallo. Pesäpallo is the Finnish version of baseball and was depeloped by Pihkala in 1920s from so called kingball, played already in Finland, by bringing to it elements from the American baseball. Pesäpallo is Finland’s national game.

But back to this winter vacation. The working-age population in Finland also have right to winter vacation. The annual vacation amount for employed people in Finland is 30 days, from which 24 days has to be held in the summertime (between 1.5. - 30.9.) and the rest 6 days the worker can then have outside the summertime. People with school children often take their 6 days then during the school’s winter vacation. The normal Saturdays are also counted to the vacation days, although we follow a 5 days’ work week in Finland, hence the one week vacation is 6 days.

The Finnish children have compulsory education from the year they turn 7 to age of 17, or when they graduate from the comprehensive school (takes 9 years, so usually in the year the child turns 16). The school year in Finland starts in the mid of August and ends on week 22 (a Saturday between 29.5 - 5.6.). Additionally the children in elementary school have a right to at least 10 days of Christmas vacation (starting usually few days before Christmas and ending just after Epiphany), autumn vacation (few days or a week in October, the local municipality can determine the length) and one week skiing vacation.

A short post this time, because I’m in a hurry to go out and enjoy the fresh snow and vacation. :)

Christmas sauna - joulusauna

One of the oldest Christmas traditions, that is still alive in Finland, is going to sauna on Christmas. This tradition dates back centuries. It is the custom of the Finnish phesants.

People prepared for sauna well, because many beliefs were connected to the Christmas sauna. Warming of the sauna, before electricity all saunas were heated with wood, became early in the morning or even during the night before the Christmas Eve. Sauna was visited during the daylight time, because it was believed that after the dark the sauna was used by the unseen chracters of the house (ancestors and elves) and the tenants of the house wanted to give those characters peace to visit the sauna. Please remember, that even in the Southern parts of Finland at this time of the year the sun rise at 9.25 and sets at 15.15. The length of the day is not even 6 hours. In up north the sun does not rise at all, so there is only few hours of dusk.

The sauna was also thought to be evil free at all time of the year. That is why no whistling or talking inappropriates were tolerated in the sauna. At Christmas sauna people were supposed to sit totally quiet. The mosquitos would tease next summer the one talking in the Christmas sauna.

Christmas sauna was very import for the Finns. The sauna has always been considered to be a sacred place in Finland. A place to wash and clean oneself, but also a place were to be born, to die and where the deceased were washed before putting to coffin.

Today attending a Christmas sauna lives strong in Finland. Some Finns visit the sauna already on 23rd, but quite many on Christmas Eve. The real Christmas sauna is still warmed up with wood and it is at its best, when there is snow on the ground. The sauna is attended on candle light. Of course the Christmas sauna can also be an electricity heated sauna at candle light or even without the candles.

In Finland only the northern parts are going to have a white Christmas this year, maybe also the Central-Finland. But we can still enjoy the warmth and humidity of the sauna. :)

I wish you all a Peaceful and Merry Christmas! 

Father's Day

On the 2nd Sunday of November we celebrate Father’s Day (isänpäivä) in Finland. This year it will next Sunday 8.11.2015. This is not a very old tradition.

Celebration of Father’s Day dates back in 1980s. The day was marked on the university’s calendar already in 1970-1972, but without a permission. And when it was noticed the date was removed. In year 1987 the university saw that the celebration of Father’s Day had become so popular that it could be marked on the calendar. So the day got the marking and it was also marked as flagging day at the same time. But it is not an official flagging day as is for example Mother’s Day (celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of May in Finland).

Father’s Day is more of a commercial day than actual celebration day in Finland. And in the nordic countries it was first introduced by the Swedish merchants in 1949. Of course we remember our fathers on Father’s Day.

Children make cards and little gifts for their dads at school or daycare. Quite many kindergartens have some kind of coffee or event on the preceeding Friday. In quite many homes father gets to sleep a little bit later on that Sunday and mother and the children bring breakfast to father to bed. In addition to selfmade gifts dad usually gets a bought gift too, like socks, scarf, gloves, aftershave or a book.

And not to forget the grandfathers. Father’s Day is also their day. So remember with card and small gift also the grandfathers.

My family takes the breakfast to bed to our dad. In the afternoon we go for a coffee and cake to my parents’ to celebrate the day with grandfather too. The children’s father usually gets a movie or a book and grandfather gets a book or a new tool for his hobby.

Happy Father’s Day to all fathers and grandfathers!

Spending summer in Finland

I have posted some words about Finnish traditions relating to summer, f. ex how to spend midsummer and the of Jaakko. Still I noticed that I have not made a post about the basic Finnish way of spending summer. So I think it is time to fix that.

Average, working Finn has annually 5 weeks vacation, 4 weeks during summer (May - September) and a week in the winter. Schoolchildren have much more vacation, 10 weeks in the summer, few days during autumn, ca. 2 weeks at Christmas and a week in the winter. 

Having vacation is not even 100 years old tradition. The first law about annual holiday was given as late as 1922. Back then the annual holiday had to be at least 7 days.   After the WWII the law was changed couple of times and in 1977 the right to 4 + 1 weeks was granted to all of those workers, who had worked with the same company at least 10 years. Nowadays we get 2.5 days/month we work, when we have worked at least one year with the same employer.

How do we then spend our vacation? 

Of course the wealthier people and the nobility have had spare time for centuries and have had a house in a city or town and also a manor in the rural area. But it was in the early 19th century, when people started acually have vacation. They acquired a villa outside the city area and the wife with children and most of the servants moved there for the summertime. The husband visited the villa as often as he could. Usually he worked in such position, that the work was stopped during summer for a certain period and the husband could also escape from the city.

In the early 20th century also the working class gradually started to have some holidays. After the WWII lots of people moved to the cities from the countryside, but as their roots where in the parish from where they left, they quite often built a small summer house for the family. The property was very often bought or detached from their parents’ farm’s land.

According to Statistics Finland 34,6 % of working labour have their summer holiday in July. In year 2014 the Finns made 7,9 million trips to abroad, mostly to Estonia, Sweden, Mediterranean and Thailand. In homeland we made 5,9 million trips, which included a paid overnight, and about 19 million overnight trips to own cottage or to visit relatives or friends. There are 500 400 summer cottages in Finland (every 5th household in Finland own a cottage). Of those approximately half have shorter than 65 meters distance to water: lake or sea. So yes, we swim and go to the sauna a lot during our vacation. This summer has not been so warm, so at the moment the surface water temperature is in Southern parts of Finland 17 - 20 C and in Lapland 13 - 15 C, except now in August with highs around + 25 C. So the sauna is really appreciated. If you want to read about the dark side of the cottage living, visit this blog. 

Also every 7th household owns some kind of boat. It can be small rowing boat or a big boat with few cabins.

And during the summer season we prefer to eat fresh strawberries, new potatoes, ice cream and grilled meat or sausages.

We also visit open-air summer theatres, different kind of festivals, weddings (August is the busiest month for weddings), christenings (in 2014 most babies were born in July) and confirmation parties (84 % of Finns at the age of 15 have their confirmation). 

There are 233 open-air summer theatres, which have around 1 million visitors during summer.

Festivals you find from here 

Lots of ways to then spend summer and prepare for fall and winter.

:)

Finnish army

This time of this year seemed a proper time to make a post about the Finnish army. On 27th of April we celebrated the veteran day (Kansallinen veteraanipäivä) remembering all the veterans of our wars. On that date in 1945 the last German troops retreated from Finland to Norway in Lapland and the Lapland War ended. Then on last Sunday, the 17th of May we had the Commemoration Day of Fallen Soldiers (Kaatuneiden muistopäivä) in rememberance of all those soldiers given their lives defending Finland or in peacekeeping duties of UN and on 4th of June we are celebrating the birthday of Marshal of Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the day nowadays known as the Flag Day of Finnish Defence Forces (Puolustusvoimien lippujuhlapäivä).

We have a conscriptional army in Finland. It roots date back to Swedish regime’s days in medieval times. The king had the right to assign normal phesants to fight in his army. This was found not to produce a good and experienced army, so the base of conscriptional army was laid during the 17th century. Finally there was a system (ruotuväkilaitos) in which a group of houses were obliged to equip a soldier. The soldier was given a small house (torppa) in which to live and which to give him some income. A bigger house (rustholli) equipped a man and a horse to the king’s army and was given some tax reliefs. The officers lived also amoung the common people in houses (puustelli) given to them due to their service in the army. This system was demolished when Finland was attached to Russia. And the czar promised, that Finnish soldiers would never have to fight on foreign soil. Still the Swedish system worked somewhat in Finland during the Russian regime in 19th century.

In 1870 the Russian czar ordered a conscription to come in force in Russia. Finland got once again a seperate law for conscription army and this law came into force in 1878. The time of service was set to three years and about 10 % of the generation was ordered to service based on a lottery. At the turn of the century the Finnish army was ordered to become as part of the Russian army. This realised only partially as the Finns stroke against the new law.

After Finland gained its independency the situation with the army was for some years a bit uncertain. The law of conscriptional army was set in 1922. After that the Finnish army has been based on conscription. The actual base of the independent nation's army was created by the Jägers and their expertise (see post 06.12.2012). 

The constitutional law of Finland says that every Finnish citizen is obliged to defend our country. The conscription is for men between their 18 to 60 years of age. There are at the moment about 1,5 million men in Finland who belong to these age groups. From 1995 onwards the Finnish women have also had the the right to voluntary do the military service. So far about 6 500 women have used their right.

The military service in Finland is 165, 255 or 347 days. The service is done in one or many of the garrisons around Finland. Usually the first two weeks after entering the service the soldiers are not allowed to leave the garrison. After that they get evening and weekend leaves of absence.

In Finland a man can also choose a military service without weapon, a civil service or a total denial from military or civil service. Almost 80 % of the men of the generation choose to do the military service, so about 21 000 men are annually doing their military service. The civil service takes 347 days and includes 1 month training and almost 11 months work service in some governmental etc. facility, f. ex. hospital. Some men choose (70-80 men annually) the total denial, which means 1 year in prison unless they are citizens of Åland or Jehova’s Witnesses who are exempt from military service.

More about the Finnish army can be found here.

Visiting a home in Finland

Spring is almost here and folks are starting to go to their summer cottages. But still it is good time to invite guests and have nice time with friends and family.

So if you get invited to visit a home in Finland what to bring, when to leave, what’s going to happen? Here is some information about how we usually visit.

The invitation is quite often very informal, most commonly given vocally or by SMS. Be sure to answer the same way, even when you cannot go. If it is not a party, the host will try to settle a new date with you. If you do not want to go for a visit, express it clearly in the first place. The Finns are used to direct answers.

Of course arrive on time, but not more than 5 - 10 minutes ahead. If for reason or another you are going to be late, send a message to the host and give a new estimated time of arrival and a good reason for being late. A Finn will understand. :)

When entering a private home remember to take off your shoes just inside the front door. Yes, take off the shoes. It’s a tradition in Finland that at private home we never wear outside shoes indoor. One can have so called visiting shoes, if one does not want to walk on socks. When visiting a summer cottage, you can ask the host, that should I take off my shoes or leave them on. In most of the cottages I have visited the shoes should be taken off when entering the premises.

What to bring then? Flowers or a bottle of wine is always a good choice. So is something from your home country. Some Finns enjoy traditional souvenir from visitor’s home country and some don’t. But the Finns are usually quite polite and do not say, if they do not like something. 

If invited for coffee, you will be served coffee and biscuits, coffee cake buns, cake and maybe something salty. Depending on the home the coffee table can be very plentiful or quite poor. And usually this has nothing do with the wealth of the family. My family’s tradition has been for decades to give the visitors a plentiful coffee table. I have been taught to always have something to serve also for surprise visitors.

If then invited for lunch or dinner, be prepared for food with Finnish or foreign twist, depending once again on the host. I myself try to offer something traditional but still modern Finnish food for our guests. I commonly serve meat or fish, if somebody is not allergic to fish. During lunch I serve water and milk with the food. On dinner I serve water and wine and/or beer, depending on what the guests prefer.

Most Finns know how to consume alcohol wisely and do not try to get guests drunk and drink them under the table. Most of the Finns can also speak at least English, but we are usually quite shy, so prefer only to speak Finnish. In Finland you do not usually bump into situation where on dinner table everybody else speak Finnish, which you don’t speak and do not understand. The Finns tend to speak then English and try to make the foreigner feel comfortable.   

And few words for the upcoming summer time and cottage visits. If you are invited to a private summer cottage, take food or wine with you. Something that is easily stored, does not require cool temperatures and is useful. Quite many cottages are located far from civilisation and require the hosts some extra effort to get all the food and drinks there. So food and drink presents are highly valued. In summer cottage you can also offer to help the hosts. Help is also highly appreciated. In many cottages modern amenities are not all present. This may mean that water is brought in from outdoor well or that dishes are washed manually and even some places have no electricity, while that has become rare.

Enjoy visiting Finland!

Postcards

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.

Visiting a cemetery

It’s Christmas time, my favourite time of the year. And this year it seems that everybody in Finland are going to have a white Christmas. Let’s hope that the forecast keeps its promises.

Although the headline of this post may seem to be dark, the post is not ment to be sad. We all have ancestors and quite many of us also close ones, who are not anymore with us. In Finland we have a great tradition to remember those people at Christmas time. We visit the graves and light a candle on the grave. If we cannot visit the actual grave, we also have places in our cemeteries dedicated to the ones buried somewhere else (muualle haudattujen muistopaikka).

I think most of the Finns visit the cemetery on Christmas Eve, but my family usually visits the graves on 23rd of December. As my ancestors come from the western parts of Finland and I’m nowadays living in the southern parts of Finland, we usually take the candle to the place in the cemetery dedicated to the ones buried elsewhere. I visit the relatives graves earlier in the December.

Imagine a dark evening, with minus grades (like - 5 C), some snow on the ground (at least 10 cm), a quiet cemetery (with lots of people, but we Finns do not talk in the cemetery, we whisper or stay quiet) and candle or candles on almost every grave. The scenery is just magical. And it is definitely one of the things starting my Christmas.

When we look back in time, visiting graves and lighting a candle there is not so old tradition in Finland. It dates back to 1920s. One has to remember that Finland got its independency in 1917 and we had our civil war in 1918. So those might have influenced quite much on the tradition. To a nation wide tradition it became after the World War II. 

The young nation, not even a year old, got into a civil war and it was then decided that the deceased would be sent to the home parish to be buried, maybe because some of them were Jägers who had not been home for years and of whom the family did not know that they were actually Jägers. The Finns continued this tradition also during Winter, Continuation and Lapland War and in every parish there is a soldier’s graves for those who have given their lives for Finland. I think after the wars remembering those, who gave their lives for the nation to stay independent, and lightning a candle on their graves was important for Finns. We have to remember that there were 3,7 million citizen in Finland in 1939 and we lost about 97 000 citizens during the WWII of which about 95 000 were soldiers. That was 2,6 % of our population. 

So quite recent but a beautiful tradition.

I wish you all a Peaceful Christmas!

Pikkujoulu / 1st advent

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!

Mikkelinpäivä

Tomorrow we shall have St. Michael’s Day (Mikkelinpäivä) in Finland. He is the only angel to have own celebration day in our liturgical year.

His day has been celebrated in Finland as long as we have had the Christian church. The archangel Michael’s day is the 29th of September and spent on that day or if not Sunday, the following Sunday. This has been the tradition since the late 18th century. Before that it was always celebrated on the actual day.

The day used to be very special for the hired help in farms. By law the hired help (maids and hinds) were given one week holiday starting from St. Michael’s day. That was usually also the day, when their contract ended and they could make contract with another farm.

The day was widely celebrated in Finland, because it meant that the harvesting was over, the cows were back in the barn and the long winter period with indoor work was starting. The shepherds (quite often young boys) enjoyed this too, because this time of year they got finally back to the farm from shepherding the whole summer in the woods and meadows. The shepherds on the shore area usually lived whole summer on an island with the herd. 

Tomorrow in most of the churches in Finland a family service is held, because angels are thought to be near the children. The day’s gospel sets child as the model of faith.

St. Michael has been quite popular in Finland. He has been the guardian saint of 10 of our medieval churches and even a city in the Eastern parts of Finland has been named after him, Mikkeli.

Back in the old times folks also used to read signs of weather for coming winter and spring on St. Michael’s day.

Mitä ilmaa Mikkeliin, sitä sitten Köyriin.

What weather on St Michael’s day, that we will get until Köyri (1.11.)

They are promising +9 C and partly cloudy for tomorrow. :)

Also it was said, that if the cold weathers have already arrived and the leaves are falling of the trees on St. Michael’s day, the spring will come early and the trees will get leaves back already on 23.4.

The Monday following St. Michael’s Day used to be called old Monday (vanha maanantai) and for long it used to be a holiday. There is even one quite markable event, that has happened on this old Monday. In 1906 the Finnish women were granted the right to vote for the first women in the Europe and third in the world after women in New Zealand and Australia.

A Bee / Talkoot

The harvesting time is here. The first hays have been harvested in the beginning and mid of July, also strawberries had to be harvest in mid July. Now it is best time to collect bilberries, hallons and currants. Apples will be ready in few weeks. So this is the best time in the year for old fashioned bee (talkoot). Back in the old days the harvesting was done much with the help of voluntary workers. The people of a village would settle dates and did the harvesting a house/day. The bee workers did not get any salary, but they got food and drink during the day.

Nowadays people arrange still quite much bees. Of course the bee is not anymore about harvesting. One can invite friends over to help with gardening, painting walls, building something, making their cottage ready for summer or winter, moving or anything else. One can have hundreds of virtual friends in the social media but the true number a friends one knows, when announcing to have a bee.

The housing company or condominium usually arranges bee annually in the spring. The purpose is to clean up the courtyards and gardens, the common areas. The finance of the different sport clubs in Finland is much based on the voluntary / bee work of the members of the club. If you want to participate in old time hay bee, that might be arranged in every July in Helsinki. The city of Helsinki arranges hay bee in the early July (this year it was on 3rd of July) at Tuomarinkylä manor. The hay is collected in old fashioned way by hoisting the hays on poles. The hay is cultivated without any pesticides or insecticides. The hay is collected from an area of about 5 hectare and used during winter as winter feed of the animals of a nearby Haltiala farm, which is also open for visitors. The bee workers are offered soup lunch and coffee. After the work is done the bee workers get to relax and wash up in the saunas of the mannor and farm.

If you are in Helsinki in beginning of September, you may want to join the harvesting bee in 6th of September at Malminkartano gardens. The are hundreds of apple trees waiting to be harvested then.

What about then private bees?

The bee workers - friends, relatives or neighbors - are not often professionals. So the bee has to be made so that everybody can do it or at least have signed duties for everybody based on their skills. Moving is a very good bee work. I have moved three times during my adult life and always managed to do it by inviting friends and relatives to the bee. I packed everything before the actual moving day. The bee started early in the morning (like 9 am) with coffee and breakfast. Then the bee workers did the actual moving and my job was to organize everything. When all the stuff was at the new apartment, I offered the workers lunch. After unpacking the stuff a few weeks later there has always been housewarming party just for the participants of the bee. Friends and relatives have also helped with construction of our house, in gardening and cutting down a tree.

I have also participated to many bees. I have been helping with moving, painting the walls, tearing down tapestry, burning trashes, picking apples and in gardening. Each time I have had wonderful time with the hosts and other bee workers.

Wedding

This week is the Midsummer (juhannus), so a very proper time to post about wedding (häät) and wedding traditions in Finland. Once again please do remember, that there are many traditions in Finland depending on religion and area, so this post is based on my knowledge and on my roots in the western part of Finland and lutheran religion.

In Finland both get a golden ring when engaged. The bride also gets a ring when wed. The ring usually has one or more diamonds. Nowadays with some couples also the husband gets another ring, but this is not traditional. I think one reason for both getting the ring when engaged lies back in the medieval times when engagement was considered as strong as marriage. Back then a spokesman (puhemies) for the groom (sulhanen) would negotiate with the father or other guardian (holhooja) of the bride (morsian) about the terms of the marriage. When they reached an agreement the couple was engaged and later the engagement was validated by marriage. Child born before the actual marriage was considered to have the same rights as child born in marriage. The marriage was not even always blessed by a priest. It was as late as in the 17th century when it became mandatory to have a priest present at  wedding and conducting the wedding so that the marriage would be legal. It was so late as 1864 when woman 21 years of age or older could marry without the permission of her father or guardian. Before that she always needed a permission. Even today quite many men still ask bride’s hand in marriage from her father, although it is not mandatory. And in medieval times the marriages, especially between more wealthier people, were mostly agreements, which purpose was to ensure alliance between families or bring more wealth to the families. In this harsh land with great distances an ally was very important.

Before getting married there has to be announcement made in the home parish of the bride. Before mid 20th century there was announcement made on three subsequent Sundays during the service. The purpose was to make the coming marriage public, so that anyone could tell, if they knew any objections to it. Today the announcement is more tradition and the incapacities of the marriage are checked out in other ways. But still it is a tradition to go to listen that day’s service and the announcement and go for a coffee to the bride’s parents’ home after the service.

The bride brings dowry (myötäjäiset) with her, nowadays not so often any more, to the marriage or like in the old days for the house she was married to. The husband gives a dower (huomenlahja) to the wife the morning after the wedding day. In the past the dower was to show appreciation to the wife and the wealthy of her new home. Nowadays it is mostly jewelry, like earrings or a necklace. In the past the wife’s dowry could be agreed to be inherited to her children after her death. The dowry could also return to her father, if she died without a heir, f. ex. to first childbirth and the child did not survive either. Additionally the bride brought with her trousseau (kapiot), which contained linen and other textile, which she had embroidered herself or with the help of the women at her home.

Then the wedding itself. Why post at this time of the year? Because in 20th century the midsummer used to be most popular time for weddings. Now most people in Finland get wed between May and September and before 20th century usually the wedding was held after the harvesting time was over, so in October to December. Also in the old days the weddings lasted 2 - 4 days. Now it takes one day.

Traditionally the groom is not allowed to see the bride during the last 24 hours before the wedding. So even if already living together many brides go to spend the last night with their parents or some friends. The bachelor parties are held much before (more about those in some other post). It is tradition that the father of the bride walks her to the middle of the church and the groom walks to meet them. The father gives the bride away to the groom and walks behind the couple to the front of the church, where he sits in the first row  on the left hand side (the bride’s side). If the bride is wearing a vail, the father can lift the vail when giving the bride, the groom can lift the vail at the altar before the wedding starts or just after the wedding before the couple turns to face the audience. The bride (especially when marrying for the first time) wears a white long dress (the pure white is traditionally reserved for the virgin brides, but nowadays also others use the pure white). The dress should cover shoulders in the church, so it may contain a shawl, short jacket etc., which can be removed during the later celebration, or then the dress is just not so open. Before the 20th century the bride’s wedding dress used to be black, because it served as the only better dress of the bride in the marriage. The groom can wear a tailcoat or a black suit.

The wedding ceremony can be long or short. It starts with entering of the couple to the altar, followed by blessing, prayer, some words from the Bible, the priest’s speech to the couple (based on the talk held few days before), the wedding itself (the questions, ring prayer, conformation of the marriage and blessing), a psalm, prayer, Our Father -prayer, blessing and ending music. Usually the ceremony takes 20 - 30 minutes. The audience stands when the bride enters the church and when the couple walks to the altar, during words from Bible and when the pair leaves the church. 

The questions can be presented in two different formats. The other format has also the words “until the death does you appart” and the other wording not. The couple can also give the ring promises (With this ring I …) but that is not traditional in Finland.

Most of our churches have great organs and many couples choose to have traditional wedding marches played when entering and leaving the church (like from Wagner, Melartin or Mendelssohn).  

Listen to some of the most popular organ and other music played in Finnish weddings from here.

Quite many couples today tour around the back of the church and enter the church again from there. Wait for the audience to go and stand in front of the church and then leave the church again in rice or other rain given by the guests. But actually this is not the traditional way, although very commonly used nowadays in Finland. The traditional way is to walk through the “rain”, when leaving the celebration arranged after the wedding ceremony. But unfortunately nowadays many wedding couples stay in the celebration until it really ends (way past midnight).

The celebration is usually held at a location (rented restaurant, manor etc.) near the church if possible. Usually a dinner is served to the guests. If a traditional wedding then the wedding couple is taken from the church to wedding photo and after that they arrive to the celebration and are greeted by the guests and congratulated with sparkling toasts.

After dinner there can be dancing, speech of the bride’s father, robbing of the bride or other games. Of course the wedding couple cut the cake (top part of it is reserved for the wedding couple and frozen and eaten at the 1st wedding anniversary) and the one (bride or groom) to first stamp on the floor, when the cake server hold together hits the plate, is the one setting the pace in the marriage. If traditional wedding, the celebration lasts for the dinner and few hours more.

The wedding couple leaves the party first and the guests wave at them. The car is decorated and drags old shoes and cans making lot of noise. Other cars honk to the wedding car.

Then few tips for the guests. Usually you need to dress up fancy, but not in an evening gown. You can always ask from the contact person of the dress code if not mentioned in the invitation. There is always contact person’s details, traditionally bride’s mother as traditionally the bride’s parents pay for the wedding, to whom you have to announce whether participating or not. Usually the wedding couple has also drawn up a present list to some local store and it is mentioned in the invitation. You may buy something from the list or if you know a present the couple would love, you can also buy outside the list. Depending on the couple, children may be allowed to the ceremony and celebration or not. The celebration may last way over midnight, but you may leave after the first dance and cake. There may also be lots of alcohol served or then just few glasses of wine. The celebration depends so much of the wedding couple.

Although such a long post this time so many traditions related to Finnish wedding are still left untold. Maybe more about them in some later post.