By Kyran Lorio
Finland celebrates many different holidays, and the official holidays established by the government can be separated into two groups: Christian holidays and non-Christian holidays.
The most popular Christian holidays are Christmas, New Years, Easter, Midsummer Day, All Saints Day, Epiphany, and Ascension Day.
Finnish Christmas traditions usually include involve going to a traditional wood-heated sauna with your family, going to church, decorating Christmas trees and adorning them with lights, ornaments, and traditional decorations like straw sticks and dimmers. Food is very important in Finnish Christmas tradition, and popular foods are rice porridge, ham, casseroles, plum jelly, and gingerbread cookies. The most popular Christmas beverage in Finland is a type of mulled wine called glogg. Another important aspect of Finnish Christmas are the Christmas carols, and surprisingly older Christmas songs are the most popular compared to newer Christmas songs.
Finnish Glogg
To celebrate New Years in Finland clubbing and partying all night are popular activities to celebrate the holiday, as well as more universal traditions such as making New Year’s resolutions and drinking sparkling wine. A more traditional activity done on New Years in Finland is fortune telling. This is done by pouring melted tin into a bucket of cold water, and the hardened tin shape is used to predict your future for the new year. For example, a ring of tin would indicate a future wedding, a star would mean good fortune, etc. Popular New Years foods include hot dogs, French fries, and potato salads.
Hardened tin shapes
The most popular non-Christian holidays in Finland are May Day and the Finnish Independence Day. May Day celebrates the beginning of summer and is a very popular holiday in Finland. Traditions for this holiday usually involve nature, like gathering branches and flowers to make flower garlands Another popular activity is setting up a maypole to dance around and decorate as you dance.
May Day in Finland – the authentic Finnish spring carnival (herfinland.com)
Quick Guide to Finnish New Year and Its Effortless & Fun Traditions (herfinland.com)