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Holidays in Finland


Holidays in Finland

Finns aren't typically very hot on big public carnivals; most holidays are spent at home with family. The most notable exception is Vappu on May 1, as thousands of people (mostly the young ones) fill the streets. Important holidays and similar happenings include:
  • New Year's Day (Uudenvuodenpäivä), January 1.
  • Epiphany (Loppiainen), January 6.
  • Easter (Pääsiäinen), variable dates, Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays. Tied to this are laskiainen 40 days before Easter, nominally a holy day that kicks off the Lent, practically a time for children and university students to go sliding down snowy slopes, and Ascension Day (helatorstai) 40 days after, just another day for the shops to be closed.
  • Walpurgis Night or more often Vappu, May 1, although festivities start the day before (Vappuaatto). A spring festival that coincides with May Day. Originally a pagan tradition that coincides with the more recent workers' celebration, it has become a giant festival for students, who wear colorful signature overalls and roam the streets. Many people also use their white student caps between 6PM at April 30 and the end of May 1st. The following day, people gather to nurse their hangovers at open-air picnics, even if it's raining sleet.
  • Midsummer Festival (Juhannus), Saturday between June 20 and June 26. Held to celebrate the summer solstice, with plenty of bonfires, drinking and general merrymaking. Cities become almost empty as people rush to their summer cottages. Might be a good idea to visit one of the bigger cities just for the eerie feeling of an empty city.
  • Independence Day (Itsenäisyyspäivä), December 6. A fairly somber celebration of Finland's independence from Russia. The President holds a ball for the important people that the less important watch on TV.
  • Little Christmas (Pikkujoulu), people go pub crawling with their workmates throughout December. Not an official holiday, just a Viking-strength version of an office Christmas party.
  • Christmas (Joulu), December 24 to 26. The biggest holiday of the year, when pretty much everything closes for three days. Santa (Joulupukki) comes on Christmas Eve on December 24, ham gets eaten and everyone goes to sauna.
  • New Year's Eve (Uudenvuodenaatto), December 31. Fireworks time!
  • Typical vacation time is in July, unlike elsewhere in Europe, where it is in August. The midsummer time is also vacationing time. During these days, cities are likely to be less populated, as Finns head for their summer cottages.

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    Finland Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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