Happy first day of Spring!

Signs of Spring:  it was 80 degrees in NH today and Google used the iconic Marimekko poppy as its search engine logo.

The Grapes Are Safe!

March 16 is St. Urho's Day!  This celebration of Finnish/American heritage takes place in Minnesota and attempts to rival the massive St. Patrick's Day celebrations around the country.  Savannah, Georgia is estimating that one million people will be on hand for the St. Patrick's Day parade.  You can compare that to the scale of the St. Urho's parade posted on YouTube.  I have posted about St. Urho before and I think I need to establish the tradition in Concord!

The St. Urho web site explains that St. Urho may have failed in this attempt to drive the grasshoppers from Finland.  There is a new book covering the hepokatit of Finland.

Happy St. Urho's Day!

Arno Minkkinen at the Currier

The Currier Museum has an exhibition of modernist photography on display now.  If I tell my husband that the exhibition includes a photograph by the Finnish photographer Arno Minkkinen, will he come with me to Manchester?  The odds are in my favor.  On Tuesday, March 13, you can connect with the exhibition at an event at Red River Theater in Concord.

"Kurt Sundstrom, who organized the Currier Museum of Art's current exhibition "A New Vision: Modernist Photography" (on view through May 13, 2012) will discuss Lotte Jacobi’s illustrious role as a European modernist, mentor to a generation of artists and her extraordinary life as one of the 20th century’s great photographers. 

Please RSVP to Michelle Thornton by March 9th mthornton@currier.org or 603.669.6144 x120

Following the discussion please enjoy the film screening of "Paul Strand: Under the Dark Cloth" at Red River Theatres beginning at 6pm. To order tickets go to www.redrivertheatres.org."

What is Italian for Sisu?

I was sad to read that Sisu pastilles will no longer be made in Finland!  They will now be made in Italy.  I love these things!

Women's Day - In Finland, but not New Hampshire!

Checking in with my Finnish friends on Facebook this morning, I learned it was Naistenpäivä-Women's Day.

Yesterday was NOT Women's Day in New Hampshire!  Above is a picture of House Speaker Bill O'Brien being confronted by women outside the State House.  You can read about the latest attack on women in New Hampshire in the Concord Monitor here.  I like the Monitor picture - a line of women underneath a row of portraits of dead white guys.

The United States is rolling back the clock on health care, not simply women's health care.  The ability to plan for children is healthier for us all.  This editorial from the Concord Monitor explains what is happening to health care in the United States in case you missed the Rush Limbaugh flap.

Stay tuned!

Heading to the polls in frigid weather!

Today is a flag day in Finland - Runeberg Day.  The flags are flying.  It is extremely cold.  And Finns are heading to the polls.  Today is the second round of voting for president in Finland and the international news is focused on the sexual orientation of the Green Party candidate, Pekka Haavisto.  You can read Haavisto's campaign web site to learn more about his life.

Because I am blogging 7 hours behind Finland, it looks as though Haavisto will not win this election.  News reports put Sauli Niinistö ahead in the results thus far.  Sauli Niinistö is a former finance minister and member of the National Coalition Party or Kokoomus.

Because the Huffington Post isn't reporting on Niinistö's sexuality, I guess we can surmise that it is less newsworthy and also that Haavisto's election would bring excite more international news than Niinistö's.

In New Hampshire, the republicans in the state legislature are trying to repeal the state's gay marriage law.  One legislator is sending out mail with the state seal to drum up support for the repeal.  It looks as though Ichabod Crane is waging the fight against gay marriage.

But rather than dwell on the sad events unfolding in New Hampshire, I leave you with this glorious flashmob video organized by supporters of Pekka Haavisto in the Helsinki train station:



And the Helsingin Sanomat is reporting that Niinistö is Finland's 12th President.

The heavens dance

Last week a strong solar storm, the strongest since 2005, hit earth and I was unaffected.  But those lucky enough to live in more northerly climes were able to watch the heavens dance.

You can download your own dancing heavens screen saver from the VisitFinland web site here.

And here is a lovely piece of music, Aurore Boreale, by the Finnish composer Uuno Klami.  Wikipedia asserts that Klami is the only composer to have fought in five armed conflicts.

Spongebob and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man - Presidential Elections in the U.S. and Finland: Compare and Contrast

The fantastic sideshow (think Tod Browning's Freaks ) that is the Republican primary has moved to the Sunshine State. The clear winner in South Carolina was Tubby Soft Squeeze a.k.a. Mr. Stay Puft, a well known villain from the past. If you have forgotten the evil deeds of Mr. Stay Puft you can rewatch Ghostbusters (circa 1984) or talk to any federal employee (also circa 1984). 1984 is the year Ben Jones, D-GA, filed an ethics complaint against serial adulterer Newt Gingrich. Yes, yes, Cooter pointed the finger at Newter. U.S. politics is stranger than fiction!

And what about Finland?

Finland's first round of presidential elections took place on Sunday. 7 candidates vied to fill the opening left by Tarja Halonen. Halonen has served her maximum two consecutive terms in office. Of the 7 candidates running for President of Finland, two were women. Of the remaining five male candidates, 3 had the first name Paavo. Any non Finno-phone following the election results on the Helsingin Sanomat web site had the fun of seeing that Google translate informed the world that Spongebob Squarepants had placed an impressive third, fifth, and sixth in the first round of the Finnish presidential elections. Spongebob Squarepants in Finnish is Paavo Pesusieni.

I will write more about the two finalists in a future blog. But first I have to post a short clip of Newt returning to power in Washington. Who're you going to call?

Ethereal beauty under ice

My friend Mike Cantrell posted this video from Finland on his blog and now the Washington Post has buzzed about it. I thought I would get in on the action. The video shows ice fishermen IN Lake Saarijärvi.

In Concord it is cold enough for the Republicans to flock to town, but not yet cold enough to skate on the White Park pond. If you read what Santorum and Newt think about aiding the disadvantaged you will know their hearts were frozen long before they came to the Granite State. We can only hope their hearts will thaw, but I won't hold my breath!

You are never too late!

I have been thinking about the 3 Kings for the past weeks. I sometimes feel that the 3 Kings are my kindred spirits. They were even more dilatory about Christmas than I am. Some biblical scholars speculate that the Wise Men may have arrived at the stable two years after the birth of Christ. I'm not that late, yet.

Even though the 3 Kings were late arrivals to the manger, they are still an important part of the Christmas pageant at our church. The pageant is open to any child from the youngest stars to the middle school students who are expected to handle the more taxing parts: Mary, Joseph, Gabriel. Middle school consists of that funny age when the potential Marys are all much much taller than any possible Joseph.

One Joseph candidate (tall enough middle school student) turned down the role. He informed his mother that this year he would be the Whiskey King. And you may ask where the Whiskey King fits in to the story. Well, in our church one of the 3 kings carries a Crown Royal bottle spray painted gold - hence a new hero is born: Whiskey King.

At the top of the post is a column capital from Autun Cathedral. My friend Inez told me about it. I love the fact that the 3 kings are sleeping together under a blanket and the angel is prodding them to get a move on with one long, angelic finger. "Get up sleepy heads and follow yonder star!"

According to tradition and the church calendar, the Kings will arrive at the manger on Epiphany, January 6. In Finland the Christmas holiday will last until Epiphany or Loppiainen. Here kids return to school on January 3.

I could write more about the kings. I have been to Cologne and seen their reliquary. But, I have to prepare for church. I will end with T.S. Eliot's poem about the 3 Kings:

Journey of the Magi

'A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.'

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

And the night-fires going out, and thelack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,

Wet, below the snow line, smelling ofvegetation;

With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,

And three trees on the low sky,

And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

But there was no imformation, and so we continued

And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you may say)satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: were we led all that way for

Birth or Death?There was a Birth, certainly,

We had evidence and no doubt.I had seen birth and

death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

Advent calendars to see and hear

Tomorrow will be the third Sunday in Advent. At the choir party today, we adults marveled at how quickly Christmas was coming. I remember time passing much more slowly as a child. I fell behind on the advent calendar this year. One moment it was Thanksgiving and the next...Advent!

We are recycling our advent calendar from last year, but I found some great advent calendars on the web!

Here is a wonderful on line advent calendar from the this is Finland web site. Each day has a special craft. I like the idea of making caramels from behind door no. 9.

Maybe I will make caramels while listening to the musical advent calendar presented by the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE. While this introductory video is all in Finnish, it is fun to watch the elf creeping around in the background. For December 6, the advent calendar has this lovely Sibelius piece.

And to drink while making Finnish crafts and listening to Finnish music: Glog of course!

I found recipes for Finnish glögi on line. I loved black current glögi when I had it at Kerttu with Keisha after language class. I am adding black current juice to my shopping list.

It is already 11.12 in Finland so feel free to listen to this!

Christmas Music and Global Warming

Everyone knows that Santa lives in Finland! Therefore, it is only fitting that I listen to Jouluradio all day. It is hard to get bored with Christmas music when it is sung in Finnish and Swedish.

It was only last year that my daughter addressed this envelope to Santa. You can see that, while she still believed in Santa, she wasn't quite buying the Finnish location. American kids have the idea of the North Pole drilled into their heads. Too many viewings of Rudolph and the reindeer bullies to quite shake the iconic image of a pole at the top of the world.

As the daughter of a geographer, I have learned to rely on maps. The map shows that it would be impossible for Santa to raise a herd of lichen eating reindeer in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, even if the polar ice cap is in tact. I recently signed an on line petition encouraging the Discovery Channel to air all the episodes of the upcoming series "Frozen Planet". Apparently, the Discovery Channel decided to show the final episode where David Attenborough studies climate change at both poles.

With a liquid North Pole, Santa must be in Finland.

But even if Santa is raising his herd of sleigh pulling reindeer in the sanity of Finland, he is not immune from global warming. It has been a mild winter in Helsinki and in Concord. Not mild enough to raise a tortoise in our house, but mild nonetheless.

Just for a change from Christmas music, you can listen to Stan Rogers sing about the Northwest Passage as you consider global warming.

You Learn Something New Every Day

I can waste hours on FaceBook reading everyone's posts and looking at the graduation pictures of kids I don't know (yes, I posted some of an important fifth grade graduation) that pop up at this time of the year. But the wonderful thing about FB is the tidbits of information that appear on my "wall". Because I liked NPR on FB, this story appeared on my FB page: Russian Women Prove it's Hip to be a Babushka. What fascinated me about this story was not the music or the charming woven birch shoes in the video, but the fact that the women are from the Udmurt republic, where the language is in the same Finno-Ugric family as Finnish.

I expected the Udmurt Republic to be somewhere near Lake Ladoga, but it is actually far to the east. Udmurtia is surprisingly distant from Finland. Like Finnish, the Udmurt written language was not developed until the 18th century*. Unlike Finnish, Udmurt is written using the Cyrillic alphabet. Another distinguishing feature of the Udmurts is the predominance of red hair. A population of gingers speaking a Finnishy language written in Cyrillic. The more I learn, the more I realize I have so much more to learn.

And what about Udmurt literature? You can friend Udmurt literature in Estonian translation on FB. I have, but since I understand less Estonian than Finnish it won't be a lively site. Maybe I can find some Udmurt literature for my Kindle. Amazon has a wide selection of translated fiction available for the Kindle. You have to search under World Literature. It is fun to have a world of World Literature within reach of your wi-fi. Sadly I could only find 3 items on Amazon with a search for Udmurt. One item is a children's folk tale and I am tempted by the I Speak Udmurt hat, but the third item does not succumb to Google translate.

Keep your ears open for news of Udmurtia. Now that I have learned that this region of Russia exists, it will suddenly be all over the papers. And, thanks to the babushkas, maybe the country will be famous for singing women in birch shoes rather than infamous as birthplace of the Kalashnikov.

*actually, written Finnish was developed earlier in a religious context. You can read more about the development of written Finnish on my blog!

The Humor of Hesari or "serious leglessness" a phrase to remember!

I love the sly humor of the English edition of Hesari. Just read the entire story and enjoy!

Hockey team's drunken antics lead to official talking-to

Video of Nurminen's hard landing at airport goes viral

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The Finnish Lions ice hockey team, welcomed home on Monday by 100,000 adoring fans as they brought with them Finland's second IIHF World Championship trophy, have come in for criticism in some quarters over the state of serious leglessness displayed by some players and staff on their arrival back on home soil.
Anyone who watched the scenes either at the airport or in the city centre will have found it hard not to notice that a good many players were suffering from the morning (or afternoon) after the night before, and some seemed to have avoided the throbbing pain of a hangover by earnestly continuing their drinking.

Whilst Mikael Granlund's wonder goal against Russia in the semi-finals has racked up a huge number of hits on YouTube and other sites, he is fast being joined by the embarrassing prat-fall of the team's goalkeeper coach Pasi Nurminen at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.
Nurminen emerged from the aircraft looking much the worse for wear and stumbled on the bottom step of the airstairs, crashing into the World Championship trophy as he spread his not inconsiderable frame on the red carpet.
The trophy had a very visible dent in it by the time it appeared before the public in the Market Square, though whether this was the imprint of Nurminen's forehead or something else is unclear.

Another member of the squad, team manager Timo Jutila (who also captained the 1995 World Championship winners) was seen to be rather dazed and confused, and he elected not to go up onto the podium with the others when the team arrived at the square in an open-topped bus to be fêted by fans.
Initially it was thought he had been taken ill, but Jutila himself declared he had an ankle inflammation.
This expression seems set to become a new Finnish euphemism for being totally wasted.

In many ways, the criticism of the players and others for their condition is a bit steep, given the general Finnish relationship with alcohol, but on the other hand, the team are looked up to as role-models by many young people, and this aspect was brought out by Minister of Culture Stefan Wallin (Swedish People's Party), whose portfolio also includes sports.
Wallin reportedly spoke to the Finnish Ice Hockey Association's chairman Kalervo Kummola on the matter, noting that whilst every Finn understood the elation that the players felt after their victory in Bratislava "it should nevertheless be remembered that sports personalities are setting an example for children and young adults".
The team's head coach Jukka Jalonen admitted that the celebrations of some individuals had got rather out of hand, and expressed the hope that they had not caused offence.

Many commented on the online forums that the new generation of players are nothing like the "old school" types (who would include both the members of the coaching staff mentioned above), and it was also noted that this sort of behaviour was these days uncommon as a public spectacle - not least because there were precious few opportunites to celebrate a great victory in this way.
In truth, there were occasions in the past when players' self-discipline failed them, but these generally only made it over the news threshold when someone was "sent home to sober up" in the middle of a tournament.

The general sentiment now seems to be that nobody in their right mind would begrudge the team members the chance to let their hair down, but that maybe their timing - in the full glare of the media and the public - was a shot rather wide of the goal.
Next time - and hopefully there will be future occasions like this to rejoice in trophies won - they would do better to keep things in check until they have gone through the necessary formalities.
The summer recess will offer plenty of opportunities for more private off-camera celebration.

Pointy Shoes and the Influence of Finnish Fashion

It is very possible that this could be an elaborate internet hoax, but I have chosen to fall for it. Long, pointy, totally impractical cowboy boots are a fashion sensation in northeastern Mexico. You can read about them here. And you should enjoy this video as well. It is long, but I recommend watching the entire clip:

The pointy boots immediately brought to mind the Leningrad Cowboys. Is it possible that there is a Finnish-Mexican connection? I was introduced to the Leningrad Cowboys through the movie by Aki Kaurismäki. And that brings this blog back to Finland by way of Cannes. Aki Kaurismäki is in Cannes with his new film Le Havre. I can't wait.

Wannabe Finns

I will have a hard time getting Chris to remove this jacket any time soon. Happily for him it is cool enough to wear the jacket this week. We are carrying on a 2 person hockey celebration here in NH. As one friend pointed out, "You never watch hockey". Au contraire. I have watched Finland demolish Sweden twice. Last night in English. In Estonian on Sunday on the internet.

Neither one of us is Finnish. Nor do we share a drop of Finnish blood. But that doesn't stop us from being wannabe Finns. Watch this video on the Helsingin Sanomat web site here. You will want to be Finnish too.

Perkele!!

This is the front page of a Swedish paper Expressen and you can see the site here. The amazing thing about this paper is the headline is the ur-Finnish word PERKELE!

Perkele is the ultimate Finnish swear word. The word has roots in Finnish mythology hearkening back to the pre-Christian Finland.

To say the word properly, you have to be able to roll your Rs. Here are some examples: first from the Duudsonit...

And from Vares...

Remember, practice makes perfect.

The Really Big News!

What is the leading story today? The arrest of DSK? No way! It is this picture - Finland is number 1 in hockey. Or as Helsingin Sanomat wrote: SUOMI ON MAAILMAN PARAS! The picture above is from HS.fi.

The fun started on Friday with this amazing goal by Mikael Granlund:

I love the Finnish commentator. A friend told me the commentator is Antero Mertaranta and that he has quite a following. You can read about him in the NYT here and you can watch him here:

I bet the streets of Finland are full of happy, happy Finns! Ihanaa Leijonat!

49 years of Finnish Talk TV - in the USA? And what about St. Urho and Jimmy Stewart?

While playing around on the interweb, I came across a television show from the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan: Suomi Kutsuu or Suomi Calling. It is billed as the longest running talk show in the US and is certainly the longest running foreign television show in the US.

You can watch it on streaming video here.

Why Michigan? Finns immigrated to Michigan in the 19th Century to work in the copper mines and Finnish identity remains strong. To celebrate the Michigan Finns, I plan to make these pasties soon. The comments to the recipe are fun--apparently these pasties are not like the " the crap they call pasties here in Detroit.." We shall see!

And while I am on the subject of Finns in the States, I let St. Urho's Day pass without a proper celebration.

People in Finland may know nothing of St. Urho, the patron saint of Finnish grapes and the giant grasshoppers. Maybe Turku could be the first Finnish city to celebrate St. Urho with the eating of Michigan pasties.

Happy belated St. Urho's Day! "Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen!" And below is what I love best about the U.P.--Jimmy Stewart:

Finland! - Be Still My Soul!

I have not been blogging lately - not enough alone time! Or rather, I have been devoting my alone time to finishing a grant application that I prepared on behalf of my local library. But that does not mean Finland isn't on my mind.

Today we sang a hymn to the tune of Finlandia in church. But I should be more specific for there are many hymns to the tune of Finlandia in many languages! We were celebrating with "Be Still My Soul". It is a beautiful hymn and the choir belted it out!

When I did a little googling I learned that this tune by Sibelius is important not only to Finns, but to other nations as well. Sibelius composed Filandia in 1899-90 as part of the independence movement that swept through Finland supported by the arts: painting, music, literature.

According to Wikipedia, the Finnish verse translates to:

O, Finland, behold, your day is dawning,

The threat of night has been banished away,

And the lark of morning in the brightness sings,

As though the very firmament would sing.

The powers of the night are vanquished by the morning light,

Your day is dawning, O land of birth.

O, rise, Finland, raise up high

Your head, wreathed with great memories.

O, rise, Finland, you showed to the world

That you drove away the slavery,

And that you did not bend under oppression,

Your day has come, O land of birth.

These lyrics certainly tell of Finland's struggle for independence and maybe, for that reason, other independence movements have adopted the tune from Finlandia. If you find Finnish too difficult to sing, you could sing along in Welsh:

Dros Gymru'n gwlad, O Dad, dyrchafwn gri,

y winllan wen a roed i'n gofal ni;

d'amddiffyn cryf a'i cadwo'n ffyddlon byth,

a boed i'r gwir a'r glân gael ynddi nyth;

er mwyn dy Fab a'i prynodd iddo'i hun,

O crea hi yn Gymru ar dy lun.

O deued dydd pan fo awelon Duw

yn chwythu eto dros ein herwau gwyw,

a'r crindir cras dan ras cawodydd nef

yn erddi Crist, yn ffrwythlon iddo ef,

a'n heniaith fwyn â gorfoleddus hoen

yn seinio fry haeddiannau'r addfwyn Oen.

That hymn was written by the Welsh nationalist, Lewis Valentine. It is the unofficial hymn of Wales.

Another nationalist movement that hoped to win independence through the power of Sibelius was the Biafran independence movement from Nigeria in 1967. You can listen to it here. When you consider the horror of the genocide and campaign of famine perpetrated against the Biafran people, it is very moving to hear this anthem.

But now I must run and prepare for another week, but I will listen to Finlandia while I tidy away the detritus of the weekend. Enjoy this video along with me: