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Jan. 16th, 2019 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unikorentoFive days of missed prompts! This is going to get long. Behold! Cuts!
I didn't have a prompt for day 12, but I'll use it as an opportunity to write a more general entry. So! The Folklandia folk music festival was a lot of fun. It's held every year, in January, on a cruise ship. (Ok, on a ferry. It's a ferry masquerading as a cruise ship.) Ordinarily, I hate these ships. It's the cheapest mode of travel in Finland, and people go on them for “booze cruises”. You party on a boat, get off the boat for a few hours to buy boxes of cheap liquor from Estonia, and then party your way back. *Gag.* I'm also a giant hypocrite for being this high and mighty about it because I've absolutely gone on those cruises myself in my 20's. They were awful back then too.
Folklandia isn't like that, however. The whole ship is sold out only for festival-goers, and nobody gets off the ship at any point. The halls fill up with people singing and playing instruments, and any larger area is taken over by dancers. It creates an odd sort of micro-cosmos. There are people there who are into traditional Nordic folk, people who want to play blues or bluegrass, people who are into “world music”, people who want to experiment with traditional sounds, and then people who want to dance and listen. And kanteles. So many kanteles.
I saw a Jewish wedding band from Sweden, a metal band that consisted of two guys with drums and one guy with a bagpipe (!), an Irish folk band that only sang in Finnish, a band that re-interpreted 80's pop music into folk songs, and a band that got all of its lyrics by harvesting tweets or online forum entries about various issues. (The explanation doesn't do it justice. It was pure genius.) The ship mixes people from the most rural, conservative parts of Finland with well-meaning hippies, and everyone bonds over how excited they are about ... string instruments, I guess? .
What would you eat, if you could eat one thing forever? /machinistm
I've had the same answer to this since I was eight years old. One day I might consider updating it to sound less childish, but in my heart I know it's true: meatballs & sauce with mashed potatoes and a side of cucumber & tomato, or grated carrot. I need to make the meatballs myself, though. None of that store-bought stuff.
That, or vegetarian lasagna..
Talk about Finnish traditions/food/typical whatever. /falena
This was broad, so I decided to narrow it down to one specific tradition: Finnish Independence Day, because it's a weird occasion and a good time.
So, the Cliffs notes version of why/what we celebrate:
Finland gained its independence from Russia in 1917. This was a fairly bloodless business at the time, because Russia was still very much trying to figure out life after the October Revolution. Marxism was very big everywhere at the time, and it was believed by Lenin and others that Finland would sort itself out (i.e decide it wanted to be communist too) and then re-join willingly.
(Finland did indeed try to sort itself out. We fought a civil war which turned into a business so unspeakably ugly that, as a nation, we just never ever talk about it. Ever. Especially not to foreigners.)
Finland stayed independent, and in 1939 fought back an invasion from the Soviet Union, lead by Stalin. In our narrative, this is what we consider the actual war for independence. The thing is, though, that there wasn't really any winning involved. At least not in the “waving banners, whooping at the backs fleeing enemies” sense.
The Soviet forces retreated because trying to invade was getting costly, and Stalin was focusing his war effort on other parts of the world. The story doesn't really end there, but I'm trying to get to the point, so we'll leave it at that for now. Finland just held its own, lost many lives, survived, and that's what the celebration is about at its core.
Me getting to the actual point:
We don't shoot fireworks, there is no party. We do things like visit graves, remember the fallen, listen to the president's independence day speech, watch a version of The Unknown Soldier (an excellent novel, btw!), dress in somber colours and (and this is where it gets out of hand) watch the President shake hands with strangers for two hours.
The president hosts an independence day reception. All veterans are invited, all members of parliament, all ministers, all diplomats, and all Finnish citizens who have in some way done good things, or made the country a better place during the course of the year.
So, if you're an athlete who did well in an international competition, you get invited. If you launched a business that took off well, you get invited. If you're a YouTube star who has become culturally relevant, you get invited.
It amounts to a lot of people, and the President and his/her partner will stand at the door and shake the hand of every single one of them and say “happy independence day”. That's it. It's a near-silent procession, and the whole thing is broadcast on live television every year.
The hooplah around it is comparable to the Oscars (albeit at a much smaller scale, of course). There is a pre-party studio where journalists interview various fashion experts (we'll get to it, wait) or other culturally knowledgeable people about what we'll likely see at the party.
In our homes, we invite friends over who arrive while the pre-studio plays in the background. We pour up some wine, wish each other happy independence day, maybe eat (Finns eat dinner at 17, just go with it), and laugh about how we're doing this again. Then we settle on the couch/floor/wherever there is space and watch the procession.
The people who get invited know that the whole nation is watching them live. They're nervous. They really don't want to trip on their hem (someone always does). They're dressed to the nines. They overdo it. We whoop and cheer on our couch. “I love her hair!”, “Oh, that is not a good colour, no way.” “Why did he get an invite? Boo!” “I voted for her!” “I want that dress!” We ask our kids what outfits they like and agree vehemently with their analyses.
This year, a woman wore a dress coloured with red cabbage. (Her husband launched this calendar that would help people shop vegetables while they were in season.) One journalist wore a dress made of newspapers (to protest the spread of misinformation?). We were all shocked and extremely pleased, as is appropriate.
After the procession, there is dancing. The presidential palace isn't really all that big, and when filled with people it's about as spacious as the London Underground, but people do their best. There is a band. (This year it was the band I mentioned above, who collect their lyrics from the internet. They sang a song about the nation's twitter response to the fact that the President's wife was pregnant. It was hilarious.)
Journalists walk amongst the guests and ask dumbass questions like “what does independence mean to you?” We, in the audience, ignore this section entirely unless someone we find personally interesting is interviewed. (When they are, we still miss it because we can't make anyone else shush long enough to hear what is being said.) We eat dessert, drink wine, and enjoy ourselves until bedtime. That's it.
[There are people who traditionally use the independence day hooplah to protest various issues. Often, it's been people who lean hard to the left and don't appreciate tax money being used for this sort of thing. Lately, it's been the alt-right. It made people nervous, but their protest was largely ignored. Instead, there were dozens of interviews with the Helsinki police chief where he was being asked if everything is proceeding calmly, and he assured the cameras that it was. We worry about things being orderly, you see.]
To prove I'm not kidding: One of the most read articles of this year on Yle (our BBC) was this piece about how the First Lady's independence day dress is going to be made out of birchwood fibre. .
Favourite thing to wear /corvidology
Leggings and a tunic! But I wear that fairly seldom, to be honest. When push comes to shove, I'm not at all confident in my own body, so for work or situations where I have to act “like a real adult,” I'll reach for jeans and top & cardigan combo. Can't go wrong there!
I did it! Four in one! That took most of evening. I still wanted to write an entry about a tabletop game I had the other day, but that will have to wait, along with entry 16. Funny, how filling a box with text can make you feel accomplished, but it does!
I didn't have a prompt for day 12, but I'll use it as an opportunity to write a more general entry. So! The Folklandia folk music festival was a lot of fun. It's held every year, in January, on a cruise ship. (Ok, on a ferry. It's a ferry masquerading as a cruise ship.) Ordinarily, I hate these ships. It's the cheapest mode of travel in Finland, and people go on them for “booze cruises”. You party on a boat, get off the boat for a few hours to buy boxes of cheap liquor from Estonia, and then party your way back. *Gag.* I'm also a giant hypocrite for being this high and mighty about it because I've absolutely gone on those cruises myself in my 20's. They were awful back then too.
Folklandia isn't like that, however. The whole ship is sold out only for festival-goers, and nobody gets off the ship at any point. The halls fill up with people singing and playing instruments, and any larger area is taken over by dancers. It creates an odd sort of micro-cosmos. There are people there who are into traditional Nordic folk, people who want to play blues or bluegrass, people who are into “world music”, people who want to experiment with traditional sounds, and then people who want to dance and listen. And kanteles. So many kanteles.
I saw a Jewish wedding band from Sweden, a metal band that consisted of two guys with drums and one guy with a bagpipe (!), an Irish folk band that only sang in Finnish, a band that re-interpreted 80's pop music into folk songs, and a band that got all of its lyrics by harvesting tweets or online forum entries about various issues. (The explanation doesn't do it justice. It was pure genius.) The ship mixes people from the most rural, conservative parts of Finland with well-meaning hippies, and everyone bonds over how excited they are about ... string instruments, I guess? .
What would you eat, if you could eat one thing forever? /
machinistm I've had the same answer to this since I was eight years old. One day I might consider updating it to sound less childish, but in my heart I know it's true: meatballs & sauce with mashed potatoes and a side of cucumber & tomato, or grated carrot. I need to make the meatballs myself, though. None of that store-bought stuff.
That, or vegetarian lasagna..
Talk about Finnish traditions/food/typical whatever. /
falenaThis was broad, so I decided to narrow it down to one specific tradition: Finnish Independence Day, because it's a weird occasion and a good time.
So, the Cliffs notes version of why/what we celebrate:
Finland gained its independence from Russia in 1917. This was a fairly bloodless business at the time, because Russia was still very much trying to figure out life after the October Revolution. Marxism was very big everywhere at the time, and it was believed by Lenin and others that Finland would sort itself out (i.e decide it wanted to be communist too) and then re-join willingly.
(Finland did indeed try to sort itself out. We fought a civil war which turned into a business so unspeakably ugly that, as a nation, we just never ever talk about it. Ever. Especially not to foreigners.)
Finland stayed independent, and in 1939 fought back an invasion from the Soviet Union, lead by Stalin. In our narrative, this is what we consider the actual war for independence. The thing is, though, that there wasn't really any winning involved. At least not in the “waving banners, whooping at the backs fleeing enemies” sense.
The Soviet forces retreated because trying to invade was getting costly, and Stalin was focusing his war effort on other parts of the world. The story doesn't really end there, but I'm trying to get to the point, so we'll leave it at that for now. Finland just held its own, lost many lives, survived, and that's what the celebration is about at its core.
Me getting to the actual point:
We don't shoot fireworks, there is no party. We do things like visit graves, remember the fallen, listen to the president's independence day speech, watch a version of The Unknown Soldier (an excellent novel, btw!), dress in somber colours and (and this is where it gets out of hand) watch the President shake hands with strangers for two hours.
The president hosts an independence day reception. All veterans are invited, all members of parliament, all ministers, all diplomats, and all Finnish citizens who have in some way done good things, or made the country a better place during the course of the year.
So, if you're an athlete who did well in an international competition, you get invited. If you launched a business that took off well, you get invited. If you're a YouTube star who has become culturally relevant, you get invited.
It amounts to a lot of people, and the President and his/her partner will stand at the door and shake the hand of every single one of them and say “happy independence day”. That's it. It's a near-silent procession, and the whole thing is broadcast on live television every year.
The hooplah around it is comparable to the Oscars (albeit at a much smaller scale, of course). There is a pre-party studio where journalists interview various fashion experts (we'll get to it, wait) or other culturally knowledgeable people about what we'll likely see at the party.
In our homes, we invite friends over who arrive while the pre-studio plays in the background. We pour up some wine, wish each other happy independence day, maybe eat (Finns eat dinner at 17, just go with it), and laugh about how we're doing this again. Then we settle on the couch/floor/wherever there is space and watch the procession.
The people who get invited know that the whole nation is watching them live. They're nervous. They really don't want to trip on their hem (someone always does). They're dressed to the nines. They overdo it. We whoop and cheer on our couch. “I love her hair!”, “Oh, that is not a good colour, no way.” “Why did he get an invite? Boo!” “I voted for her!” “I want that dress!” We ask our kids what outfits they like and agree vehemently with their analyses.
This year, a woman wore a dress coloured with red cabbage. (Her husband launched this calendar that would help people shop vegetables while they were in season.) One journalist wore a dress made of newspapers (to protest the spread of misinformation?). We were all shocked and extremely pleased, as is appropriate.
After the procession, there is dancing. The presidential palace isn't really all that big, and when filled with people it's about as spacious as the London Underground, but people do their best. There is a band. (This year it was the band I mentioned above, who collect their lyrics from the internet. They sang a song about the nation's twitter response to the fact that the President's wife was pregnant. It was hilarious.)
Journalists walk amongst the guests and ask dumbass questions like “what does independence mean to you?” We, in the audience, ignore this section entirely unless someone we find personally interesting is interviewed. (When they are, we still miss it because we can't make anyone else shush long enough to hear what is being said.) We eat dessert, drink wine, and enjoy ourselves until bedtime. That's it.
[There are people who traditionally use the independence day hooplah to protest various issues. Often, it's been people who lean hard to the left and don't appreciate tax money being used for this sort of thing. Lately, it's been the alt-right. It made people nervous, but their protest was largely ignored. Instead, there were dozens of interviews with the Helsinki police chief where he was being asked if everything is proceeding calmly, and he assured the cameras that it was. We worry about things being orderly, you see.]
To prove I'm not kidding: One of the most read articles of this year on Yle (our BBC) was this piece about how the First Lady's independence day dress is going to be made out of birchwood fibre. .
Favourite thing to wear /
corvidologyLeggings and a tunic! But I wear that fairly seldom, to be honest. When push comes to shove, I'm not at all confident in my own body, so for work or situations where I have to act “like a real adult,” I'll reach for jeans and top & cardigan combo. Can't go wrong there!
I did it! Four in one! That took most of evening. I still wanted to write an entry about a tabletop game I had the other day, but that will have to wait, along with entry 16. Funny, how filling a box with text can make you feel accomplished, but it does!
no subject
Date: 2019-01-16 08:40 pm (UTC)We don't shoot fireworks, there is no party. We do things like visit graves, remember the fallen, listen to the president's independence day speech,
We have a day of remembering those who died in war that was supposed to be like this - and used to be, but now some people have begun to use it as a celebration. The right wing like to make it into a day of national pride. So I can relate to your concerns about the right wing using the day for their purposes.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 05:47 pm (UTC)The next day, reporters were standing outside the jail and interviewed the people who had been picked up the day before for having been involved. And their replies were amazing. "Uh, nah. I wasn't protesting anything in particular... like. My friend called and said they're smashing stuff, so I thought I'd go smash some stuff, and like.. yeah."
Political genius, man.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-16 08:46 pm (UTC)That definitely sounds like genius to me! \o/
I love your description of Finnish Independence Day and it doesn't sound at all odd to me... but then I come from cheese rolling country so... :D
I like your favourite things to wear and think you should break out the tunics more often.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 05:49 pm (UTC)Regarding the band, yeah. It's genius. I'd link the songs if they weren't all in Finnish.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-16 09:53 pm (UTC)The folk festival on a boat sounds AWESOME.
Thanks so much for sharing the history of Independence Day in Finland. It was very interesting. The shaking hand procession thing is... Weirdly awesome. I wish we had something so unifying in Italy too. We don't. And that's why there's no Italian national character, we're all much more loyal to our local traditions. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-16 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 05:55 pm (UTC)You're not the first Italian I've heard say that. But you know, "unity" like this is largely manufactured when you dig into it. It's necessary for us to have a clear "national story" (all nations/peoples/religions have a story they tell themselves about themselves) for geo-political reasons, and it's taught to us in every conceivable manner from an early age.
Italy just doesn't agree on its own story. Which is very Italian in an of itself! :D
no subject
Date: 2019-01-16 10:08 pm (UTC)I was very interested in your description of the Independence Day.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-17 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 05:58 pm (UTC)I've been wanting to go to a similar folk festival here, but it is just held in a high school
I'm always happy to hear that there are folk music festivals being organized! Long live string instruments and complicated braids!
no subject
Date: 2019-01-17 04:29 am (UTC)The somber mood of our Independence Day might have something to do with the fact that it’s the 6th of December so it’s either cold as balls or raining sleet. 🤔😬
no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 06:09 pm (UTC)To him, it’s kansalaissota (War of the Citizens) or veljessota (War of brothers)
Yeah. I think sisällissota is the most neutral term available. The red-leaning ones use kansalaissota and the white-leaning ones talk about vapaussota or punakapina. (Which, btw, sounds insane in English. "The Red Rebellion". Like we're a Star Wars prequel!)
There's been some really interesting research about it all coming out over the past few years, I suppose because of the whole Suomi 100 thing. It's good that it's all being dealt with honestly and truthfully. Folks really need some nuance these days.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-19 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-17 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-17 07:41 pm (UTC)Haha, I love the Finnish national day "watching the dresses" celebration. Perfect for that time of year! My Finnish students usually have a party and watch it. Sometimes they invite the other exchange students, but they just don't get it.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 06:13 pm (UTC)It really is. If one has to be on a cruise ship, might as well let it be a folkfestival.
Sometimes they invite the other exchange students, but they just don't get it.
I just love this. "Let's have a party! Come on over! We're gonna watch people queue for two hours! It's gonna be great!"
Inviting foreigners to independence day parties is also kind of a thing people do, I've noticed. I suppose it's fun for the same reason it's fun to try to get non-Finns to appreciate salmiakki. :D
no subject
Date: 2019-01-21 10:16 am (UTC)Oh, God I had this happening in class this morning. They were giving out free stuff outside, and a couple of Spanish guys had gotten some Salmiakki and were trying to eat it discretely in class. In the end one of them actually raised his hand and asked What is this "Salmiakk"?, The four Finnish girls in front of them and I just broke down laughing, they looked so totally lost. Totally not what they had signed up for poor guys.