LIVING IN FINLAND

Finland is a country which is located to the northeast of Europe. It has a population of 5.4 millions in habitants, being the second country with the lowest population density. The capital is Helsinki. The country is part of the European Union. The economy operates with euros, although formerly it used the Finnish markka. Also, Finland is an easy country to visit. It has the best education in the world. Finnish manners and costumes are clearly European, with only a few national variations. Finland has a mixed culture, with a combination of European and Indigenous influences, and with significant variations in different parts of the country.

The music In Finland is really extended. There are different types of music: the first one is the folk music, influenced by Karelian traditional tunes and lyrics of the Kalevala metre, an epic poem compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th Century. It is one of the most significant works of Finnish-language literature. The most common instrument used in playing traditional Finnish music is the kantele. Additionally, in the 1970s, folk music became all the rage in Finland with the emergence of performers and festivals in the media.

Classical music has a very lively scene since 1852 when the first Finnish opera was written by a German called Fredrik Pacius. In fact, Pacius also wrote Finland’s National anthem.

Sami music is also typical in Finland. It has its own musical tradition; the people who enjoy this type of music are usually located in the northern part of Finland. In the past few years the popular music in Finland has been changed in some aspects. Popular music includes heavy metal, hip-hop, rock and tango.

Heavy metal in Finland is really popular. The Finnish rock music started in the 1960s with the artists Blues Section and Kirka. A curious piece data is that the Finnish have a group of heavy metal for kids, who sings songs about dinosaurs designed specifically for children. Also, they play heavy metal in churches. The Helsinki Festival is the largest multi-arts festival in Finland.

In Finland there is a lot of dances. The most common are: Tango, which reached Finland in the 1920s and has made its way into Finnish tradition to become part of the standard repertoire of several bands. Tangomarkkinat is the world’s oldest tango festival and is held at Seinäjoki in Finland.

Humppa dancing is related to jazz and foxtrot, also it is considered a variant of the polka. The typical speed is between 220 and 260 beats per second. Antero Alpola invented this dance during 1950s.

Jenkka is a partner dance, originated in Finnish folk dance. It is similar to the Schottische. It became popular around the 1950s.

The Finnish calendar is full of festivals, of religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter, common to many other places in Europe, but there are very particular and traditional festivals, such as The Walpurgis Night, a typical Scandinavian festival that takes place on April 30 and is also known as "the night of witches."

The Midsummer is a holiday that starts in summer. Families go to holiday and summer cottages or houses, where they will spend weeks in the forests or along the shores of lakes and the sea. There is a tradition that if a young woman picks seven different kinds of wildflowers and puts them under her pillow on Midsummer Eve, that night she will dream of her future husband. Night of Saint John, on June 24, another celebration, is called Juhannus and is celebrated with bonfires on the coast, as in many parts of Finland.

The Sauna is an ancient cleansing Finnish tradition, similar to a bath but with hot steam. A Finnish sauna session can be a social affair in which the participants disrobe and sit in temperatures typically between 70 and 100 C. The point of the sauna is to relax and make you sweat. In fact, most every house in Finland has a sauna.

Finnish typical clothing has a design that is very unique and easy to recognize. It is known by the name "Mouhijärv" or "Kansallispuvu". However, there are interesting variations as different regions and local customs impose their particular characteristics. It consists of a long colorful skirt to toe. Above it there is placed a kind of apron that is usually white or khaki. This is a very few shorter than the lower skirt centimeters. At the top, the woman has a long garment sleeve scoop neck and a little runaway. Top of This shirt or a red plaid short sleeve and barely held from thin strips combined with a jacket skirt is placed.

The official languages in Finland are Finnish and Swedish. 90% of the population speaks Finnish; it belongs to the small Finno-Ugrian language group; outside Finland it is understood in Estonia. Swedish is the second official language, with 5% of the population. Swedish is spoken in some coastal areas in the west and south and in the autonomous region of Åland. In school, Finnish children learn both Swedish and Finnish and may also learn Russian, German or English, as foreign language. English is the most popular foreign language in the country, so you can get around Finland without speaking Finnish or Swedish. The Sami language is an official language in northern Lapland. Finnish Romani and Finnish Sign languages are also recognized in the constitution. The Sami is a minority language in Scandinavia that is spoken by around 2.000 people living in the north of Finland, which is 0.03% of the Finnish population. Karelian is related to the Finnish dialects, spoken in eastern Finland.

Finnish food is varied and good, including meats and vegetables. Pork and beef are part of the diet, however reindeer is also very important and typical. Recipes of reindeer include stew, roast and pate. Fish is common because there are many lakes in Finland. The most popular varieties of fish are white fish, herring, salmon and artic char. On the vegetable side potatoes go along with most meat and fish. Rye bread is the most preferred type. Finally, berries in a great variety make the most common fruit.

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