1 post tagged “music”

Today I'm going to post something more serious and fact-filled. You see, today's the Finnish independence day.  We turn an independent 90 years this year, which means we are a relatively young state. By the time the oldest of my grandparents was born, the Republic of Finland had only just turned 2 years old, to put it into perspective. This, by no means saved my grandparents from war. My granddad was only 16 when he went off to defend this country. The turnouts of that war have for some reason been the root for a national feeling of shame, so they've only just started talking about their time there when they've gotten to live this long. As an example, My grandfather went off to war while he was 16, with 3 other guys of about the same age. He survived, but one of these guys disappeared (I don't remember what happened to the 2 other boys). The last sightings of him state that he went mad and ran straight towards the russians. His mother never stopped waiting for him to come home.

So. What is this thing called Finland? You might know we were one of the first countries to allow women (and the landless of the time) to vote. What you might not know is that this was mainly because of the fact that a country as small as this needed every possible vote they could get to show the Russian Emperor that we don't really dig being The Grand Duchy Of Finland to your Russia. Sorry if I spoiled the feminist image you might have had about us being so far ahead regarding matters of equality, but that's just the way it was. We also actually broke free of The Russian Empire because of the fact that they had just suffered throught the October Revoution and had some wars going on in other directions (it was 1917, you figure out which war ..) and couldn't be too bothered with this puny little country despite of its sexy coastline.

Before we belonged to Russia, we belonged to Sweden. Funny enough, the finnish language was elevated into the status of national language (alongside swedish) only as late as 1898 (or at about that time, I'm no 100% sure of the year anymore, it's been a while since my history lessons). A young nation and a young language.

When Finland was surrendered over to the Emperor of Russia, he moved the Capital. It had been my hometown of Turku, and the Emperor thought it would be easier to defend if it were not as close to the coast or the swedes. Hence, the capital of Finland is and has been since 1812 the city of Helsinki. They also stole my university. The Emperor founded Åbo Akademi (as the royal academy of Åbo, it became Åbo Akademi in 1918) in the 1600s, but the university has since also been moved over to Helsinki. So, although Åbo Akademi is still up and running, and owns the majority of the buildings in Turku, The University of Helsinki claims to be the oldest one in the country since it has been founded by the emperor, in the 1600s, in Turku. I might be a bit on the Åbo-side of it all, but there's no big fight going on regarding who was the Real 1st University. Personally I think if it was founded in Åbo, it cant be moved and my opinion is that they suck somewhat.

So. After we became independent, we were actually going to be a monarchy. Prince Charles of Hesse was going to rule over us but he never reigned because the Republic of Finland was established. He still has descendants that could've been kings of Thousandlakez. In an interview with the person who would've been the reigning monarch right now he established that even being interviewed felt awkward. He refused to put the crown we made almost 100 years ago on his head, and I understand him completely.

Today we are going to celebrate independence in 2 ways. The tradition is to put 2 candles, preferably coloured white and blue, in every window and light them at 6. This is to show respect and to remind ourselves not to forget what the the veterans of all the wars fought in the last century have done for us. The second way is to gather snacks and stare at the telly. Every year the Prez hosts an independence day ball which the parliament, the government and other important people (for example Kimi Räikkönen, having won the F1 WC) attend. We lesser people stare at the tv and watch all these people shake hands with Mrs. Prez. And the kicker: at least 400 gowns to judge. All the women of Finland have a field trip this evening! And all the men are either forced to keep the women company, or are waiting to see if someone will accidentally slip and loose their skirt/tupé.

As for you all, I'd like to share with you: Finlandia, By Jean Sibelius, performed here by the NY Philharmonics.

Finlandia was written and revised in 1899-1900. Jean Sibelius entered it in a competition that was designed to accelerate the patriotic feelings of Finns towards Finland, thus hopefully sparking a national desire to part with Russia. Because we were not independent at that time, Finlandia was performed under several pseudonyms in order for it not to fall under Russian Censorship. Some names that I absolutely can't recall had something to do with happy spring feelings in Finland. The National anthem of Finland is Maamme (=Our Country), but this fits quite well into celebrating independence day. It starts out a bit heavy, but trust me, it gets lighter and more serene at the end. Finlandia starts by describing the turmoil in Finland, and ends with describing the beauty of the country. If you have time, listen to it. It's best appreciated sitting on a snowy mountain-top, gazing down at the snow-covered woods of Thousandlakez but you could just as well turn off the light in your room while listening. Why no light, you ask? Because at this time of the year, we have approx. 6 hrs of daylight, and it's not even the darkest time yet.
Enjoy.

And do we carry a grudge against the Russians? Not officially, no, but the border between Finland and Russia has been and to my knowledge still is the tightest, most guarded border between any two countries in the world. This is why . Also, if you're interested, check out what Wikipedia has to say about the Winter War that followed. More specifically the little table on the right that shows what each side had to fight with. I'd say the finns were pretty pissed and the russians extremely unprepared for winter.