Midsummer celebrations

Because it is June one of the"hot topics" in Finland apart from holidays is currently Juhannus - Midsummer celebrations.

Midsummer celebrations in Finland are one of the most important festivities during the whole calendar year. Finns celebrate beginning of the summer. Name Juhannus is said to originate also from religious background, namely bitrh of John the Baptist. Normally it would be 26th of June. The information about Juhannus origins are widely available in the Internet (e.g. in Wikipedia) so it is not the point to repeat all of that information. Let's see how it really looks.

Finns decided that Juhannus will be celebrated between 20th and 26th of June, so that the Juhannus day is actually on Saturday.

Have you ever wondered why the celebrations have been moved to take place always on Saturday? It seems like Finns like to work a lot and they wanted to avoid a situation when 26th happens to be a working day and they cannot work. This is actually the case with some other "national holidays" - they are moved to Saturday not to lose any working hours. Very good for the economy indeed. However - Friday before Juhannus is actually non-working day, because of coming Juhannus :D Sort of funny case.

Of course Juhannus is also a celebration of the longest day in the year. The normal activities include going to summer cabin, setting a huge camp-fire, going to sauna and for many it is also an occasion to drink loads of alcohol.

What about the weather? Well, it is supposed to be the beginning of the summer, but it does not mean that there will be at least 20 degrees and sun... Especially this year... Anyway some Finns say that there is nothing like a bad weather - there is only bad clothing. So I'll try to be brave tomorrow, put on several layers of clothing (today it was 7 degrees...) and set out to visit friend's cottage.

The sad part of this event is many drownings happening during Juhannus weekend. Despite warnings it seems to be unavoidable part of those celebrations.

Nevertheless I plan to come back in one piece and write down my report from Juhannus and maybe occasionally add some more posts. See you later then and hyvää Juhannusta!

Pics by Piotr Rutkowski