Finnish Independence Day

Today is a national holiday in Finland as they celebrate Finnish Independence Day. 6th December was the date in 1917 that Finland declared independence from the Russian empire. It was not until 1919 that the Finns first celebrated their independence day.

In the early days of independence the Finns had a solemn approach to independence, though more recently the festivities have got a little more lively with a lot of blue and white themed gifts and cakes.

For me it's a day to remember my great friends the founders of J&J Rally Tours, my own very special rally tour guide operators, who have helped me to experience the highly enjoyable Neste Rally Finland for the last eight years and also teach me a little about the Finnish approach to life and nature. The language still evades me though.

It's time to break out the Koskenkorva and enjoy a few shots, you don't know what you're missing until it's your time to go and find the bottle of Koskenkorva that's been waiting for you in the woodshed. A quick shot and take some wood back to stoke up the sauna, a traditional Finnish experience best enjoyed with good friends and good spirits.

One of my personal favourite pictures of this year was this early morning shot of the sunrise on the lake that I posted on the post back in August when I was last in this great country.

Long ago one of my Finnish colleagues explained the word sisu as meaning spirit or guts, but I realise that for many Finns it's actually a complete mindset. To me sisu is a word that encapsulates the Finnish spirt. It's similar to the who dare wins approach but more about getting things to work or happen regardless, almost in spite of, how many obstacles are put in the way.

Time for a true Finnish story...

A Swedish archeologist starts to dig in the ground, and after digging to a depth of 10 metres he finds copper and concludes that the Swedes had a fixed line telephone service 20 years ago.
A Norwegian archeologist hears about the Swedish discovery and starts to dig, at 20 mters he finds shreds of glass and determines that 40 years ago Norwegians had a fibre optic based telephone system.
The Finnish archeologist hears about the news from Norway and Sweden and starts digging, but at 150 metres underground he's not found any indication of copper or glass and so concludes that before any other civilisation the Finns had implemented a mobile telephony system that didn't need copper wires or fibre optic cables!

So from me to all my friends, colleagues and readers in Finland, Happy Finnish Independence Day.

- p4pictures -