Row, row, row your boat!

Sometimes a journalist finds herself in the story. I know that the New Jersey Supreme Court does not consider mere bloggers to be journalists, but I hurried down to the Aura river yesterday planning to cover the church boat races for this blog. My friend Mari and her fellow teachers would be racing against other teams of teachers and students from the technical school network in Turku.

Mari sent me links explaining the significance of church boats in Finnish history. Finland is a country of lakes. After the reformation, the Church required that communities maintain boats for transportation to mass. The boats were owned and maintained collectively. The largest boats had 60 oars and could seat 8 people on each bench.

Church was a welcome relief from the day to day toil of agrarian life. The church boat voyage was a way to connect with neighbors. The rhythm of rowing must have suited the contemplative mood before church. But the mood after church was entirely different. The church boats would race home for the honor of being the fastest boat. Up to 40 people could be rowing at a time so you can imagine the wake the giant row boats generated on the calm inland waterways and some boats were even greased with butter.

Chris and I were eating ice cream (tar flavor for me, salmiakki for Chris) on the pedestrian bridge when Mari asked me if I would like to take an oar. Her team was short a rower. What an opportunity to take part in this Finnish tradition. I lost my objectivity immediately. I was no longer interested in the success of the nurses or the students, but was only behind my team of teachers and cooks.

We rowed three times and won all three of our races securing third place and our bronze medals. It was the first sunny day in Turku where I didn't need to wear a jacket and Chris is even a little sun burned.

You can watch some wonderful vintage film about the church boats here. The blog post on "the naughty bits" of the Finnish language continues after the video:





And now for the naughty bits...(don't read further if you don't want the naughty bits!)

One of the joys of learning a foreign language is becoming familiar with the naughty words. You may be able to read the Helsingin Sanomat, but until you can understand what the joyful hockey fans are yelling in the street you don't really know Finnish. Firoozeh Dumas wrote about her quest to understand "gritty French" in her review of the book Merde Encore. You can read her review here on the NPR web site.

Gritty words in a foreign language are freeing. I have no problem saying perkele because I am not a Finn. I don't even mind if Sophia says perkele. But sparks would fly if I heard her utter the "F bomb".

What does a post about church boats have to do with gritty Finnish? Only a Finn would know, so I will let you in on the secret. The word kirkkovene is expressed by a small drawing of a boat. That boat drawing is also the crude representation for the act encompassed by the f-bomb.(f.n. below). You can see the graphic here on this church youth group web site. Apparently some people were outraged when the youth group adopted this symbol. But what could encompass the spirit of a youth group better than a church boat? The dirty minded should read up on their Finnish history.

The nurses' rowing team all had the symbol on their shirts and the symbol is also used on products aimed at the feminist home decorator. In fact the symbol was everywhere yesterday joyfully representing the sacred and profane all in good humor and good fun.

f.n. Finnish does not have a profane semantic equivalent for the F word. However, they do have a word that can be used in the same way and that word is represented by the symbol for the kirkkovene.

The Day of Finnishness

How will you celebrate today--Finnishness Day? Watch the Duudesons? Listen to HIM? All well and good for the Finnish influence on American teen culture, but read on (if you aren't too caught up in the Duudsonit videos).

Today is a flag day in Finland. J.V. Snellman's Day or The Day of Finnishness, suomalaisuuden päivä.

Snellman is considered one of the architects of Finland. He was born in Stockholm in 1806 and his family relocated to Ostrobothnia when Finland became a grand duchy of Russia. He studied at the university in Turku and then in Helsinki, when the university moved to the new Russian capital of Finland. He was close to both Runeberg and Lönnrot.

He became a professor of philosophy at what was then the Imperial University, but his outspoken opposition to Russia led to his dismissal from the position in 1838. Snellman recognized that language was the key to national identity. Swedish was the language of education and the upper classes in Finland at that time and Snellman worked to promote Finnish and Finnish literature.

He published two periodicals from Kuopio. The Maamiehen Ystävä, the Farmer's Friend, was the only Finnish language periodical at the time. He also published the Swedish language periodical, Saima. Saima was so critical of the government that it was eventually banned.

After the death of Tsar Nicholas, Snellman regained a position at the university and also a seat in the Senate of Finland. With this political power Snellman was able to elevate and promote the Finnish language and tie the Finnish currency to silver rather than the ruble.

During the reign of Alexander II, Snellman believed that close ties to Russia were important for national security. From my reading of the two articles in English I have located (SKS and Finland.fi) it seems that Snellman believed that Finland, under Alexander II, could carry out reforms including universal education in Finnish and these reforms would empower Finland to develop its own brand of nationalism. A highly educated population was necessary for a distinct nationality and the Finnish language was necessary for the education of the largely agrarian society.


You can celebrate the Day of Finnishness by entering the Cold Colder Coldest competition:

This competition is for residents of the United States of any age.

By May 24 send me (coldercoldest@gmail.com) an essay that begins:

"The first thing I will do when I visit Finland is....."

Please include your mailing address and whether you are a colorful candy person, a chocolate candy person, or a xylitol gum addict.

The four winners will be chosen by a panel of experts and will win a bag of Finnish candy (or gum) and the publication of their essay on the coldcoldercoldest blog.

Chew on this--Xylitol Gum

Xylitol gum is a swag option in the essay contest. Let me explain what it is and why it is so Finnish.

In Finland it is common to see a family get up to leave a restaurant while one parent passes everyone a package of gum. Everyone pops a piece of gum in their mouth and walks away. This is not an exercise in minty freshness or part of a bubble blowing culture. Instead, it is dental hygiene at its most portable.

Xylitol and its ability to prevent tooth decay was discovered and developed here in Turku at the Institute of Dentistry at the University of Turku. One of the developers, Kauko Mäkinen, was interviewed here in the Helsingin Sanomat. He is pictured above.

You have to love a researcher who helped develop a wildly successful product, but never invested in it.

”Neither have I ever bought any shares. I have always thought that it is safer to remain an independent academic researcher”, Mäkinen notes.

He also shares the insight that xylitol and ethanol should not be mixed!

”It was easy to recruit young dentistry students to participate in tests. They were promised a really good party after the testing period”, Mäkinen reports.
Mäkinen smiles to think of the punches served at the final party.
”One of the punch bowls had been sweetened with Xylitol, which gave the students a truly horrific hangover. Later on, I learnt that when consumed in large quantities, mixing Xylitol and ethanol is not a very smart way to go”, Mäkinen notes.

( The italicized quotes are from the Helsingin Sanomat.)

You cannot find gum with the same levels of xylitol in the United States. I would guess that price may be an issue. You cannot buy a package of gum for a quarter here. Xylitol gum is marketed in South Korea and this You Tube video is a must see. I love the Finnish leprechaun!

Swag Give-Away

Any blog worth the space it occupies on the interweb should have a swag give-away. So, here is the first ever coldcoldercoldest competition!

This competition is for residents of the United States of any age.

By May 24 send me (coldercoldest@gmail.com) an essay that begins:

"The first thing I will do when I visit Finland is....."

Please include your mailing address and whether you are a colorful candy person, a chocolate candy person, or a xylitol gum addict.

The four winners will be chosen by a panel of experts and will win a bag of Finnish candy and the publication of their essay on the coldcoldercoldest blog.

Mead Paw and Cloudberry boy

If you are following the world hockey championships in Germany you might think that the lion is the symbol of Finland. Anyone drinking Karhu beer knows that it's the bear and not the lion that represents Finland.

The bear is very important in Finnish culture. Before the Christian conquest of Finland, the bear was revered and his life cycle followed in seasonal rituals. The bear's name was sacred and terms such as mead paw and cloudberry boy were used to refer to the bear. I learned about the Year of the Bear at the wonderful exhibit in Tampere. Agricola, the Bishop of Turku, recognized the importance of bear symbolism and called for the hunting of bears as a way of strengthening Christianity in Finland.

The famous bear hunter, Martti Kitunen, lived north of Tampere in Virrat. Virrat hosts a special bear feast every July, the Virtain Karhunpeijaiset. Bears move through Finland following the rhythm of their lives from hibernation to "reincarnation". You can read about one bear's journey here. Bears are also found on the Turku archipelago.

This entire post is merely an excuse to post this video that I found through the Books from Finland web site. The top picture of the bear cub is also from the Books from Finland web site.

Enjoy!

Helsinki and Äitienpäivä

Today the flags are flying for Mothers Day, Äitienpäivä. Things are quiet here as everybody naps on a wet, cloudy day in Turku.

I had my mother's day fun yesterday. We went to Helsinki. We had not visited Helsinki together and I was afraid we were running out of time. I love taking the train. We usually have seats facing each other with a table and it is a very pleasant way to travel together. The snacks appear before the train leaves the Turku station, of course.

We headed for the Helsinki zoo on the island of Korkeasaari. The zoo is 121 years old and known for its snow leopards. It doesn't have the usual large African mammals, like elephants, because of the cold winter climate. It was a raw day and we had the place to ourselves. We wandered around the chilly island and were even invited "backstage" to see young snakes that hatched last year. The keeper told us that the hatchlings would be donated to other zoos. The zoo was recently in the news when the flamingos were killed by a fox after being left outside.

We took the bus back to the train station and walked towards the kauppatori. On the way past Ateneum we were lured into an exhibition of camera obscura. There was a walk-in camera obscura, a camera obscura in a large can that went over your head, and even a camera obscura in an old pram.

Our next destination was the National Library of Finland. I have wanted to visit the library since I won a book about the collections. The interior is beautiful and Chris and I viewed the small Kalevala exhibition. We then split up.

Chris went to Suomenlinna, but Sophia and I went to the Sinebrychoff Museum to see the mysterious Caravaggio exhibit. The Caravaggio exhibit includes two St. Francis in Meditation paintings. At first glance the paintings appear to be identical, but the exhibition showed xrays and an explanatory movie about the differences between the 2 paintings. Sophia was very interested in looking for the differences. She noticed a patch of darker material on St. Francis that was not on the other St. Francis. There are some articles on the web hypothesizing that Caravaggio may have used the camera obscura as a tool for painting.

The Sinebrychoff Museum had some other wonderful exhibits on Venice, Carnival, and the Commedia dell'arte. We went through the entire museum listening to the flute and piano concert on the second floor.

We headed back to the station to meet Chris and ride home. The two statues above are part of the train station, an architectural marvel designed by Eliel Saarinen.

Happy Mothers' Day Marilyn and Rosalyn!

In Vares' footsteps

Last night I met friends for a drink at a wonderful bar, Apteekki. It was formerly a pharmacy and is lined with the original wooden shelves. I had a cherry beer on tap--bright cherry red with the beer bite to boot. I walked home shortly after 10 enjoying the evening light and the crowds of students in their coveralls.

Apteekki is one of the bars that the fictional detective, Vares, frequents. Here is a picture of Reijo Mäki, the author, at the Apteekki. And here! In fact, Apteekki is a must see tourist destination for fans of hard boiled detective fiction.