The flag was introduced by law on 29 May 1918, less than six months after Finland gained independence. The pattern and colours had already been decided on in 1870 ...

The flag was introduced by law on 29 May 1918, less than six months after Finland gained independence. The pattern and colours had already been decided on in 1870. The poet Zaccharias Topelius selected the colours, which symbolise the snow and the lakes of Finland. The beautiful colours of the national flag are celebrated in many Finnish songs. As in other Nordic countries, it is customary in Finland to have a flagpole in front of both single-family houses and apartment buildings. In apartment buildings and high-rise buildings the janitor sees to it that the flag is flown on flag days. Some summer cottages also have a flagpole, and on non-flag days, a triangular blue-and-white crossed pennant is flown in order to show that the head of the family is at home.

The song »Vårt land« (Our country) was first performed by Helsinki students at a spring festival on 13 May 1848, and it later won general acceptance as national anthem ...

The song »Vårt land« (Our country) was first performed by Helsinki students at a spring festival on 13 May 1848, and it later won general acceptance as national anthem. The lyrics were written in Swedish by Johan Ludvig Runeberg and the music was composed by German-born Friedrich Pacius (1809-1891). At the same spring festival, a »Finnish« flag was flown for the first time.

The message of »Vårt land« was politically quite topical: In the year of the revolution 1848 it was important not to let the social unrest of the people slip into destructive revolutionary channels, but to direct it towards constructive, aesthetic, patriotic channels. The Finnish adaptation of the text was written in 1889 by Paavo Cajander.

1. Oi maamme Suomi, synnyinmaa   
Soi, sana kultainen!         
Ei laaksoa ei kukkulaa,         
ei vettä, rantaa rakkaampaa        
kuin kotimaa tää pohjoinen,        
maa kallis isien.          

2. Sun kukoistukses kuorestaan
kerrankin puhkeaa
viel’ lempemme saa nousemaan
sun toivos, riemus loistossaan,
ja kerran laulus, synnyinmaa,
korkeemman kaiun saa.

Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is thus related to Estonian and Hungarian. As a relatively small and sparsely populated country, Finland is very proud of its own language ...

Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is thus related to Estonian and Hungarian. As a relatively small and sparsely populated country, Finland is very proud of its own language. It was not until the 19th century that Finnish was recognized as a civilized language. The oldest words are about 5000 years old and date back to the Finno-Ugric and Uralic era.

Especially from a European point of view, Finnish is considered a language that is very difficult to learn, since it is not part of the same language family. There are many differences in grammar and vocabulary: Words often do not resemble European words. For historical reasons, Finnish has numerous old loan words from Swedish and English, which are used often and willingly. There is a commission that translates new words into Finnish, but it only gives recommendations and there are no binding rules.

The sentence structure is not strictly predetermined and allows for many possible combinations. A number of diverse dialects leave their mark on the colloquial language. Within the family, people cultivate their own expressions, so it is almost possible to speak of a family or personal dialect. Incidentally, the second official language in Finland is Swedish.

Mini language course in Finnish:
Good day – hyvää päivää
Good evening – hyvää iltaa
Hello – hei, moi, terve
Good-bye – hei, moi, hei hei or  moi moi
Thank you – kiitos
Excuse me – anteeksi

The Finnish national day is December 6, the date of the declaration of independence in 1917. Independence Day celebrations involve patriotic rituals such as visiting war graves ...

The Finnish national day is December 6, the date of the declaration of independence in 1917. Independence Day celebrations involve patriotic rituals such as visiting war graves.

In the evening a festive reception takes place in the President’s Palace, to which dignitaries and all kinds of celebrities are invited. The President’s Reception is followed by the public with great interest, and the live broadcast of it on television regularly gets the highest viewer ratings of the year.

Christmas is called Joulu in Finnish ...

Christmas is called Joulu in Finnish.

Advent season 
A long time before Christmas the first Pikkujoulu begin. Every company, every association organises such a »small Christmas party« with music, speeches, food, and glögi (hot wine punch).

Moreover, the houses are decorated as well. The children hang up their Advent calendars, and the time has come to make Christmas decorations and to bake Christmas cookies.

Carolers are also part of the standard programme of holiday festivities in the Advent season. On December 13, the Swedish-speaking schools and families celebrate St. Lucia’s Day.

In Christmas traditions Santa Claus, his wife Muori and all the gnomes play a special role with their different duties. They all live on Korvatunturi Mountain in Lapland.

Christmas Eve
Promptly at 12 o’clock noon the Christmas peace is announced for the whole country in the former Finnish capital of Turku. At nightfall people visit the cemetery to place lights on the graves of their loved ones.

The Christmas tree decorations consist of chains of flags, globes, and straw stars. A star is placed at the top of the tree. A special decoration is himmeli, a traditional Finnish decoration constructed of straw pieces on strings and hung from the ceiling.

For the holiday, the table is set with plenty of traditional dishes, such as Christmas ham with a mustard crust, fish, rutabaga and carrot casserole, and rossoli, a beetroot salad with salted herring. Santa Claus brings the Christmas presents at the beginning of the evening of December 24.

A sauna session on Christmas Eve before the festive meal is also a Yule tradition.

Christmas holidays
On the first day of Christmas people usually spend time with their families. Many attend a church service. The second day of Christmas, in the Christian church the day dedicated to St. Stephen, is called Tapani in Finnish. People meet for merry get-togethers or a Tapani dance in restaurants. The third Christian holiday during the Christmas season is Epiphany on the 6th of January. It represents the end of the Christmas season.

For more information, visit www.virtual.finland.fi/xmas

Easter is called Pääsiäinen in Finnish ...

Easter is called Pääsiäinen in Finnish. Happy Easter is Hyvää Pääsiäistä.

In good time before Easter, Finnish children sow rye grass seeds in pots. Pussy willow is an ancient Easter decoration, and birch twigs are put in vases where they soon start budding. Today, tulips, lilies, and daffodils are flown in from continental Europe, but that doesn't mean Finns didn't use to have Easter »flowers«. These were made by hand, out of tissue paper and dyed feathers. This tradition is still alive in Finland, and nowadays children make this Easter decoration in school.

Beside chickens, chicks, and coloured eggs, the rabbit is part of the traditional Easter decoration. However, the Easter bunny that hides Easter eggs is only known in very few regions in Finland. The northern part of the country is still covered with snow!

On Palm Sunday, little girls with sooty faces and scarves tied around their heads can be seen walking around in their neighbourhoods and villages. They carry broomsticks, coffeepots and and hold bunches of decorated willow twigs. The little Easter witches go from door to door, reciting good luck poems in return for money and sweets. This tradition in fact combines the Western belief in witches with the Eastern church tradition of whisking people lightly with blessed twigs. The whisking with decorated willow twigs and wishing people good fortune was formerly a – predominantly Orthodox – custom in Eastern Finland.

Officially, 86 per cent of Finns belong to the Evangelical-Lutheran church and about 1 per cent to the Russian-Orthodox church. In recent decades, the Lutheran majority has adopted some elements of Orthodox Easter traditions, and therefore non-Orthodox Finns have also become acquainted with night services and processions.

The oldest and no doubt the most unique traditional Finnish Easter dish is mämmi, a thick dark brown porridge made of water and sweet rye malt. It is baked in a slow oven in cardboard boxes that look like birchbark baskets used in former times. Nowadays mämmi is a dessert served with cream and sugar, but originally it used to be a Lenten provision. Lamb and pasha, a cream cheese dessert originally from neighbouring Russia, are popular Easter dishes in Finland.

The Finnish summer is much warmer than foreigners would expect and the midnight sun is the perfect setting for a nocturnal sauna session at the lake ...

The Finnish summer is much warmer than foreigners would expect and the midnight sun is the perfect setting for a nocturnal sauna session at the lake.

Summer usually begins in Southern Finland at the end of May and lasts until mid-September. On the south coast the summer lasts a month longer than in the northern parts of the country. In the south and in the middle of Finland there are approximately 10-15 hot days on which the maximum temperature is above 25°C.

A phenomenon north of the Arctic Circle is the midnight sun. In the northernmost parts of the country the sun does not sink below the horizon for 73 nights, and often you have to wear sunglasses at night when driving a car. Even in southern Finland, the longest days of the year last almost 19 hours.

The most important of all summer festivities is the midsummer night celebration on Juhannus (St. John’s Day). The midsummer night festivities are celebrated on the Saturday following June 19. Everybody in Finland then moves from the cities to the countryside. The Finnish mökki (summer cottages), preferably remotely situated at the shore of a lake, are populated on the weekend. The Johannus bonfires that are reflected in the lakes and rivers are part of the midsummer night festivities. Guests are offered a rich variety of delicacies: sausage of course, special Johannus cheese, Finnish crepes, smoked fish, and a good deal more.

Many Finns spend the whole summer at the mökki. If weather permits, people spend as much time as possible outdoors. Meat and fish are grilled or smoked and served together with fresh vegetables, herbs and new potatoes. Of course, the sauna is in constant use all summer. The »summer Finn« jumps directly from the sauna into the water and swims a lap to cool off before continuing with the next sauna session.

The climax of the culinary summer is July 21: the beginning of the crayfish season. Many expat Finns choose this time of year for a visit to their native country, in order to celebrate crayfish parties with their friends. Whereas high school graduation parties and the midsummer night festival are celebrated throughout the country, the crayfish parties are common primarily in Southern Finland and on the coast. Additionally, there are numerous other celebrations and festivals throughout the country, such as music festivals, rock festivals, village parties, etc.

The Finns love outdoor exercise and enjoy taking walks or going jogging. A newer trend is Nordic walking. This sport has its roots in the summer training of skiers ...

The Finns love outdoor exercise and enjoy taking walks or going jogging. A newer trend is Nordic walking. This sport has its roots in the summer training of skiers and in American power walking.
During the winter, the Finns not only admire the achievements of ice hockey players and ski jumpers, they become active themselves. The most extreme discipline that can be pursued during the winter is ice swimming, and for quite some time there have even been ice-swimming contests.

However, the official Finnish national sport is pesäpallo – pesis or Finnish baseball. The founding father of this sport is Lauri »Tahko« Pihkala, who developed the sport based on American baseball. Originally he conceived pesis as a military sport, as a physical exercise for the troops. In contrast to the American model, pesis is a much faster sport with more tactical possibilities.

Pesäpallo in Finland: www.pesis.fi
Pesäpallo in Germany: www.pesis.de