Finland, Finland, Finland...

One of the goals of the first year of this project was to get to know one another. Our pupils have written short texts about Finland. The choice of topics was all theirs and this is what they wanted to tell you about Finland:

Finland's seasons

Finland is a country which has four seasons per year: winter, spring, summer and autumn. Finns think it’s really nice and they like it very much. Every season has its own good and bad things, and in one year people get a lot of experiences.

Winter usually starts in October or November and lasts about 200 days. Snow is an essential part of Finland’s winter and at its highest it can be over 90 centimeters! ... But that’s only in Lapland or elsewhere in Northern Finland. Skiing is a popular winter sport. Lapland’s mountains are full of tourists from southern Finland and abroad. Christmas is the biggest Finnish holiday.

In spring snow melts and the temperature rises to between 0 °C and +10 °C. The spring is Finland’s shortest season but during it a lot happens. One of the first signs of spring is when the willows bloom, usually in April. At the same time some animals like lizards and snakes begin to wake up. Spring celebrations are for example Labor Day and Easter.

When the summer comes, the average temperature rises to over +10 °C. Typically, summers last in Southern and Central Finland till the end of early September. Most Finns think that summer is the best season as well. Even enjoyment of small things is fun, like eating ice cream on the beach. The summer’s biggest celebration is Midsummer. Then the sun doesn’t set in the North at all.

Autumn: The weather starts to become colder and usually it rains a lot. The days will become shorter and darker. Autumn is the darkest time of the year. September, October and November are the months in autumn. Then the leaves fall from trees.

Summer in Finland

Finland is a country with an amazing summer. Helsinki is the capital of Finland. There you can visit an amusement park or you can go shopping, or whatever you want.
But it’s not the only alternative. Going to the countryside is the way to enjoy to the peace and quiet of Finnish nature. Finnish nature is so beautiful, it’s full of forests. And you can see many different animals, like red foxes, elks, squirrels there. In Finland there are many lakes, too. Many Finns also have summer cottages and the Finnish summer is warm. Finnish people go to a sauna a couple of times a week. After the sauna, it feels nice to jump in a lake, if you have a summer cottage. Strawberries and ice cream are a part of Finnish summer. Usually Finnish people eat new potatoes, salmon, herring, rye bread and many different foods in the summer. The Finnish summer is quite short, but there is time to do many many things.

SAUNA
The sauna is a traditional Finnish invention. Everyone in Finland has been in a sauna. The sauna is very nice. You heat the sauna up to 140 °C (max).Then you want to go outside and grab some birch twigs. When the sauna is warm enough, you go there with your very sweet lady. And of course you go to the sauna totally naked. You fill a bucket with hot water and bring it to the sauna. Then you throw water with a ladle onto hot stones. Then steam goes up and warms you. You have high benches in a sauna. Some old saunas which don’t have water and sewage pipes have a water heater. From there you get hot water to wash yourself. When you are in the sauna you whip yourself with those birch twigs that you have with you. When you feel too hot you go out with a towel and go ice swimming, but you can go ice swimming only in winter of course. Many Finnish people drink beer in the sauna. When you have been in the sauna long enough you go and wash your hair and body. Then you go swimming once more and then you go away from the sauna.
In Finland there are different saunas. There is a steam sauna and a smoke sauna and of course an original sauna. There are different sauna stoves too. There are wood stoves and electric stoves. Many people usually have an electric stove at home and a wood stove at their summer cottage.
In Finland some people go to a Christmas sauna. That is usually in the morning.
In a sauna you can fry sausages too. Some saunas have a metallic board where you can put those sausages. Then you can eat them in the sauna. Of course you can eat them in the dining room too :-).

Finnish food

Meals

Rye bread, Karelian pie, Karelian hot pot, rice porridge, new potatoes, rye pudding, herring, carrot casserole, swede (rutabaga) casserole, potato casserole, salmon, smoked salmon, light vegetable soup, buttermilk, mead, funnel cake, Runeberg's tart, grilled sausage, flat barley bread, perch, pike perch, Baltic herring, whitefish, fish baked in rye dough, Lappish reindeer dish, blueberries in milk, cabbage casserole, large pancake, egg and butter spread, soured skimmed milk, home made beer

Ingredients

Blueberry, lingonberry, cranberry, cloudberry, sea buckthorn, wild strawberry, black and red currant, chanterelle and trumpet chanterelle

What are the foods like?

Karelian pie
It's a little pie which has rice on it.

Karelian hot pot
It's a hot pot which has beef, pork and vegetables.
Finns eat it with potatoes.

Rye pudding (mämmi)
It's a pudding which is made from rye.

Light vegetable soup
It's a soup which is made from milk, vegetables and root vegetables.

Funnel cake
It's made from wheat, and it’s dropped into hot oil.
It looks like a bowl. It has icing sugar on it.

Mead
It's a drink which is made from fruits and a little alcohol.

Runeberg's tart
It's a tart which was made for the famous poet Runeberg and his wife invented that recipe.

Flat barley bread
Usually, Finnish flat barley bread is made in Lapland. The most famous flat barley bread in Finland is called "Lapin rieska" and in the past people made it from ingredients which were leftovers from the night before, for example, water, flour, potatoes etc.

Fish baked in rye dough
The people of Savo, who live in the east, invented the dish. It is fish inside of rye bread and it is cooked in the oven.

Large pancake
It's a traditional Finnish dessert that is larger than a normal sized pancake. It's best with jam and whipped cream.

Egg and butter spread
It's a mixture of butter and eggs. Finns eat it on Karelian pies.

Home made beer
It's "beer" without alcohol. And it doesn't taste very good.

When do we eat these foods?

In summer
Especially in summer: Light summer soup, large pancake, grilled sausages, smoked salmon, blueberries in milk, and all berries

In autumn
Especially in autumn: Different mushrooms, the best mushroom season is in autumn

In winter
Especially at Christmas: rice porridge, carrot, swede (rutabaga) casserole, potato casserole, smoked salmon, gingerbread, herring, ham, mulled wine, roe, different fish, mince meat pies etc.
Especially in winter: Runeberg's tart

In spring
Especially at Easter: mead, funnel cake, chocolate eggs

Finland Quiz

1. When did Finland gain her independence?
2. Which country is Finland’s eastern neighbor?
a) Russia
b) Kazakstan
c) Estonia
3. What is the capital of Finland?
4. Which language don’t they speak in Finland?
a) Finnish
b) Swedish
c) Spanish
5. What is Finland’s national sport?
6. Who is Paavo Nurmi?
a) an ice hockey player
b) a rally driver
c) a runner
7. What is the highest point in Finland?
8. What is Finland’s form of government?
a) Monarchy
b) Communism
c) Republic
9. What is Finland’s national animal?
a) a wolf
b) a bear
c) a lion
10. When did Finland win its first (and only) ice hockey World Championship?
11. Where does Santa Claus live?
a) Helsinki
b) Turku
c) Lapland
12. What is the biggest lake in Finland?
13. What is Nokia?
a) a pub
b) a telephone company
c) an airplane company
14. How many people are there in Finland?
15. Who is the president of Finland?
a) Seppo Taalasmaa
b) Borat
c) Tarja Halonen
16. What is the biggest religion in Finland?
17. Which one of these persons doesn’t act in Salatut Elämät?
a) Seppo Taalasmaa
b) Ismo Laitela
c) Teemu Selänne
18. What is Salatut Elämät in English?
a) Mission impossible
b) Secret lives
c) Braveheart
19. Was this quiz too hard for you?
a) Yes
b) No
c) I’m going to go to the therapist now
20. Why did you do this quiz?

ANSWERS!

1. 6.12.1918
2. Russia
3. Helsinki
4. Spanish
5. Baseball
6. Runner
7. Halti
8. Republic
9. a bear
10.1995
11. Lapland
12. Saimaa
13. a telephone company
14. 5.6 million
15. Tarja Halonen
16. Most Finns belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. (They are Christians.)
17. Teemu Selänne
18. Secret lives
19. (Own answer)
20. (Own answer)

Finnish Music

There aren't so many musicians in Finland. Only few of them are world-famous. In America they know Nightwish, Children Of Bodom, Apocalyptica and Him. In Germany they listen to the Rasmus very much. I think that the most famous composer is Jean Sibelius. Of course everyone knows Lordi, the winner of the Eurovision song concert in 2006.

What do you think about Finnish music? We would say that Finnish language isn't good for music. We prefer English.

SANTA CLAUS

Santa Claus, also known Father Christmas, Kris Kringle is the great hero of the Finnish Christmas. Santa is an old man with a white beard and red suit and he gets his name from St Nicholas.
Santa Claus lives in Finland in Korvatunturi. On the top of Korvatunturi there are tree ears with which Santa hears the wishes of all the children in the world. Korvatunturi is such a secret place where only Santa Claus, his wife and hundreds of elves, Santa's helpers are allowed to leave. Santa's own elves do many different kinds of work. Some of them gifts and others run Santa's own post office and handle all the mail.
You can meet him on any day of the year, in Finland. There is snow on the ground during the Christmas season. At the Arctic Circle, Santa Claus has a post office of his own and the world's only Main Santa Post Office. The Finnish Santa Claus receives many letters from all over the world.

While most gift givers around the world deliver their presents in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping, the kids can't see him at all.

Santa's world famous reindeer is Rudolf the red noses reindeer. Rudolf is important because his red nose is a source of light on the dark evenings when Santa has to travel.

Fazer

Fazer is one of the largest Food corporations in Finland. The company was originally founded by Karl Fazer in 1891. Fazer makes chocolate, candies, bakes bread and cakes. Fazer has many cafés around Finland. Fazerin sininen is most famous chocolate made by Fazer.

FINLAND

SUOMENLINNA
Suomenlinna is a historic sea fortress, a popular attraction and a place where people live.
Suomenlinna is just a 15-minute ferry trip from Helsinki's Market Square.
Suomenlinna is open all year round.

LAPLAND
Whether you love peace and quiet place, or whether you have in mind an active or a cultural holiday, you can give free rein to your wishes in Lapland.
You could even meet father Christmas and his elves there. His home, as everybody knows, is in Lapland.
Lapland is in northern Finland.

LINNANMÄKI
Linnanmäki is a amusement park.
The first opening day, 27 May 1950.
Linnanmäki has 41 different rides of different sizes. It also has other attractions, such as arcades, games, kiosks, restaurants and an outdoor stage on which different performers appear in the summer.

HELSINKI

Helsinki or Helsingfors is capital of finland and is the biggest city in finland.

Helsinki is Finland's capital for business, education, research, culture, and government. Greater Helsinki has eight universities. In Helsinki there are many shopping centres.