Friends: The one where it isn't quite the same as St. Valentine's Day

Tänään on ystävän päivä - mutta 'Valentine' on erilainen...

If you are used to the British / American commercialised version of St. Valentine's day (selling the ideal of romantic anonymous gestures like flowers, chocolates, champange, of maybe a candlelit dinner for two, or a  surprise trip to Paris) you could be forgiven for thinking that Ystävän Päivä being today, 14th February, is just the Finnish version of that. Not quite.  

After Konna and I became a couple, the first time St. V's day came round* I had known her (and anything about Finland) less than a year. So I was a bit taken back when she got a number of cards and presents from Finland, and even more confused when they turned out to be from various mainly female friends; was there something I didn't know about her past!? Well of course there was (although not like that). In Finland Feb 14th is 'Friends Day' (no, not a celebration of the TV show) and is not so strongly connected with romance, and cards an presents are swapped by friends, although the Anglo-American version is encroaching... 

So Happy Friend's Day to all our hölynpöly friends...

*Actually there is another story about that same year - but Konna say's I can't tell everyone she fell asleep halfway through the fancy romantic candle-lit meal I made her on our first Valentine's...