What you Will, Shakespeare that is!

Today is a holiday in Finland, loppiainen. Shops and banks are closed and the trains are running on a Sunday schedule. We arrived in Turku during the Christmas holiday and realized that normal schedules did not resume until after loppiainen. Loppiainen, the Finnish term for the day of Epiphany refers to the "end" of Christmas time or loppu.

Here loppiainen will pass unnoticed by many. Christmas trees are already out on the curb and tinsel has been boxed up for another season.

Epiphany comes from a Greek word for manifestation referring to the actual manifestation of God in the baby Jesus. It is traditionally believed to be the day the 3 kings or magi arrived to worship the child. Rushing from one holiday to another, Epiphany is also a kick off day for Mardi Gras. No reason to stop overeating yet.

I will celebrate Loppiainen at the traditional Christmas choir white elephant gift swap and my pot luck will be a king cake from the Frugal Feasts blog:

King Cake

1 package frozen bread dough, defrosted

6 tablespoons butter, softened

⅔ cup sugar mixed with three tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 small plastic baby (see note)

1 cup powdered sugar

¼ cup heavy cream

purple, green and gold sanding sugar (see note)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough out into a long rectangle, 6 inches wide by 18 inches long. Smear with the butter, leaving a ½ inch plain border around the edge. Sprinkle liberally with the cinnamon sugar.

Bring the two long sides of the dough together so that they meet in the middle in a long seam. Wet the edge with a little water and press together to seal. Place on greased cookie sheet and arrange in a loose oval, seam-side down. Pinch the ends together to seal.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden and hollow-sounding when tapped. Cool completely.

Make a small slit in the bottom of the cake and stuff the plastic baby into the slit.

Place the powdered sugar in a bowl and slowly add enough cream to make a thick frosting. Spread on the cooled cake. Decorate with the three colored sugars.

Note: Plastic babies and colored sugars are available at Chandler's Cake and Candy Supply at 7 Perley St. in Concord, 223-0393.

And, we must not forget the play Twelfth Night, subtitled What you Will!

Turku-an ant city?

Here is a video from the European Capital of Culture:

Culture anyone?

If you need to inject a little culture into your life, head immediately to Turku. Turku is the 2011 European Capital of Culture. I am still receiving emails from Turku and long to take advantage of the special events. Anyone up for Turku Castle Knight Days? You can see a calendar of events here.

Here is a short video to give you the flavor of events in Turku:

Fintango!

How does a blog about Finland cover a holiday trip to Argentina? With a discussion of the tango of course!

Chris, at the top, is probably the closest thing to a Finn at this tango show. He is so stiff he scarcely has joints. Michel, my brother-in-law, being a Belgian, has a little more flair. Both knees are slightly bent.

Chris, Sophia and I headed way south to visit our nieces-now residents of the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. I will post holiday pictures at my other blog that you can find here, but for this blog I will focus on the tango.

We went to a tango show in Buenos Aires and were impressed with the athleticism of the dancing. The dancers pressed tightly together and their feet flew in quick kicks between their partner's legs or around their partner's body.

The history of tango is said to come from the louche underbelly of 1880s Buenos Aires. One web site reports that the dance represented the relationship between a prostitute and a pimp. The bandoneon, like an accordion, was adapted from Germany and became the instrument for the tango.

By the turn of the 20th century, Argentina had the 6th largest economy in the world. Argentina's influence as a world power spread the tango to Europe where it became the latest rage. Maybe the tango craze has diminished in the rest of Europe, but it remains extremely popular in - ta dah!- Finland.

According the this article from the Christian Science Monitor, the tango invaded Finland in 1913 and by the 1930s Finns were composing their own lyrics for the tango. The melancholy lovelorn yearning of the tango fit in perfectly with the Finnish language.

Perhaps the most famous Finnish tango is Satumaa. It was even performed by Frank Zappa!

There’s a land beyond the vast sea
Where waves wash on the shores of happiness
Where beautiful flowers always blossom
Where worries of tomorrow can be forgotten

Oh if once I could go to that fairytale land
Never would I leave from there like a bird
But without wings I cannot fly, I’m a prisoner of ground
Only in thoughts that reach so far can I ever there be

And now- I highly recommend watching this entire clip of Morley Safer in Finland. I don't know how old it is (the currency is pre-Euro), but it is informative and amusing! P.S. I think the Finnish radio announcer is poking fun at us--the U.S.! And to follow, a Kaurismäki clip of Satumaa. You can never watch too much Kaurismäki.

Christmas Peace - Joulu Rauha

Every year on Christmas Eve, peace is proclaimed in Turku.

The proclamation is read in Finnish and Swedish to the assemble multitudes:

Tomorrow, God willing,
is the graceful celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour;and thus is declared a peaceful Christmas time to all, by advising devotion and to behave otherwise quietly and peacefully,because he who breaks this peace and violates the peace of Christmas by any illegal or improper behaviour shall under aggravating circumstances be guilty and punished according to what the law and statutes prescribe for each and every offence separately.

Finally, a joyous Christmas feast is wished to all inhabitants of the city.

If it sounds medieval...it is! Turku has been declaring Christmas Peace since the Middle Ages. You can listen to the Christmas Peace here.

We are having a peaceful time at home. Soon we will leave for church. Sophie will ring and sing and speak in the pageant. I will sing in the choir. And tomorrow we will break the Christmas Peace by flying to the antipodes--summer in Argentina with our far-flung family.

Last year we were preparing for our five months in Finland. We arrived in Turku on December 28. We have been home longer than we were there and we still miss it. I hope to hear the Christmas Peace in person one year and, if I am very good, I hope to have a Christmas Sauna one day too.

Rights vs. Duty or A party to celebrate Itsenäisyyspäivä!

Today is Christmas Eve! I am finally sitting still with my computer on my lap. Advent has flown by leaving us all full of butter and little stunned.

Chris and I ushered in the holiday season with our first ever Finnish Independence Day Party. 60 people gathered to help us celebrate the 93rd birthday of Finland. Once the party was underway, I was too busy to take pictures. The pictures above show some of our preparations. Mari sent me candles, napkins, and chocolates. We had plenty of champagne, but the Finlandia vodka went quickly. The Finnish meatballs were a huge hit.

Towards the end of the party we all gathered for a toast to Finland and Chris commented on some of the marked differences between our own Declaration of Independence and the Finnish Declaration.

Felice and I read the US Declaration of Independence every 4th of July while swatting mosquitoes and waiting for the fireworks to start. Once you get beyond the heart stirring talk of self evident truths, the laundry list of complaints against King George begins and goes on and on. It could be considered whiny if you weren't feeling particularly patriotic:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such disolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass [sic] our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us :

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

The Finnish Declaration of Independence is an altogether different document. Rather than stressing their rights, the Finns stressed their duty.

The people of Finland feel deeply that they cannot fulfill their national and international duty without complete sovereignty.

But I have a firm appreciation for the American Declaration of Independence as well. One of my gifts to myself is "And the Pursuit of Happiness" by Maira Kalman. I can't wait to sit down and enjoy this book. The pictures are lovely. You can read her blog here and watch a video about this book below.

Hedging our bets!

My daughter's therapist might hear about this in years to come! By the end of the day yesterday, I had her convinced that she had better address this letter to Joulupukki in Rovaniemi. But she is wise. She is carefully hedging her bets.