Seasons Greetings...

So this is Christmas...

Joulukortti 2011 - jk @ arkkitehdas

Hyvää Joulua kaikille!

Joulukortti 2010 © Arkkitehdas / Mark Davies

  

Happy Christmas, Hyvää Joulua, God Jul, Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeaux No el, Feliz Navidad, j.n.e and similar Juletide Greetings from emmdee, konna (and the tonttu) at hölypöly

Kallio snow globe

Kallion kirkko yesterday

   

It's a bit strange writing about summer (see lost posts - like you can miss them) when even in Kallio it is like being in a snow globe recently.

A Rare Finnish Export?

"Just before the first snow of winter falls, professional hunters begin their work. The long process of tracking, hunting and transforming this king of the forest into a finished product is a time consuming process, but the final outcome is a reason to celebrate" Rare Exports Inc. 

I first came across the Rare Exports short films about five years ago in London at a Finnish film festival at the Barbican. In amongst the subtitled darkness of Louhimies' Paha Maa ('Frozen Land' - although paha literally translates as bad or evil) and a brace of painterly and bleak yet comedic Kaurismäki's* (such as Kauas pilvet karkaavat or 'Drifting Clouds') were two short interlopers directed by Jalmari Healander revealing the 'real' story behind Finland's most famous seasonal and rare export... (which can both be seen here)

Dear (secret) santa

One of our family (pre)-Christmas traditions is the writing and exchange of Christmas lists.  It never really occurred to me until recently how potentially strange it is for a grown man to be writing a list 'for santa' still, although these days it is an email that goes to Mum and siblings.  We don't think it strange, quite useful in fact to have a few hints, especially when you don't see each other much, but Konna has always found the whole thing odd and refuses to write a list for herself (and looks oddly at whatever item I have suggested to some member of my family). On the other hand she usually agrees or even buys herself, her present from her Mum, and is certainly not above heavy hints to me. At least our way there is some element of surprise...

Joulukuu

advent candle

If you are a regular reader (hello Mum!) you might remember that we did a blog-a-day joulukalenteri (advent calendar) on Finnish Christmas/Jule traditions a couple of years ago. Hardly the most original idea ever, but amongst our most highly 'read' posts (all those finnish kids googling joulutorttu and himmeli...)

Konna and I did talk about doing something similar again this year but here we are 1. joulukuussa... But hey, it may be snowy and -15°C outside, but you can read our 'lost posts' of summer instead, and remember the +30°C and sunshine.


So, notice anything different today?

New toys

Red skiers: From Christmas 09

On Christmas morning we always used to look out for kids on their new bikes. I guess it's the same here with skis... going for a walk on Sunday you would almost think you were in some ski resort in Lapland rather than the eastern edge of Helsinki.

See the imaginatively titled Christmas 09 album in the sidebar at the moment for christmas pictures and another walk in a snowy forest with a camera.

Hyvää Joulua / Merry Christmas

25 - Joulupäivä

our christmas e-card to you all

meidän joulun s-korttin kaikille

Now stop reading this blog and go play with your new toys...

24 - Joulupöydällä (On the Yule table)

From Finland winter 06/07

Today is Christmas Eve. Which in Finland, unlike Britain, is the main event - ruokaa, joulupukki, lahjoja (food, santa, presents) ...

In the morning, it is traditional to eat riisipuru which is salted with 'lucky' almonds for the unwary. Then (if you have one) perhaps a morning sauna to get relaxed (and clean) for the day's 'exertions'.  The visit to the cemetery to place candles on family graves is perhaps for me the strangest thing of the day, with no similar tradition at home; traffic jams forming at the main cemeteries, directed by police make the whole thing slightly surreal, although the sight of the snowy graveyard filled with candles in the early darkness is eerily pretty.

By tradition dinner can start when the first star is in the sky (not sure what you do if it's cloudy) and the birds have been fed. After dinner, joulupukki and his tonttu may visit to deliver the presents... although strangely ours are already under the tree. Hmm.

---

So then to the groaning christmas pöytä, from which one can take food for the rest of the afternoon and evening. But how does it compare to (tomorrow's) traditional British christmas dinner?  Last year we even managed to have both (with my family in UK) so here are both for the curious of both nations...

Suomen joulunruokaa: From hölynpöly

Starters

Suomi: Lax (smoked salmon), Silli (Herrings in various sauces), Fish roe

UK: Scottish smoked salmon & champange

Suomi: Lutefish (pre-soaked in lye... probably an aquired taste)

UK: nothing comparable

Suomi: Joulukinkku - the huge christmas ham: cooked overnight, slavered in mustard and breadcrumbs

UK: Turkey - huge, golden, with fragrant stuffing (the older British tradition is actually Goose, but I've never eaten that)

Suomi: Laatikkot - different casserole 'boxes' of carrot, sweetened potato, turnip and liver

UK: Roast potatoes, parsnips & carrots

Suomi: Rosolli - beetroot and mixed vegetable salad, Lingonberry and cabbage salad, Mushroom salad

UK: Brussel sprouts

Suomi: Pate, meat aspic, smoked reindeer.

UK: Liver pate, pressed tongue, stilton

Suomi: Gingerbread cookies, Joulutorrtu.

UK: Mince pies, christmas pudding, trifle

And to drink: Glögi, wine, beer, milk, and coffee (of course - Finns start to get the shakes if they don't get coffee every few hours...)

UK: Wine, beer, fruit juice, mulled wine, coffee

Later: 

2 burana and a lie down...

2 neurofen, the Queens Speech and a lie down...

A British Christmas plate: From hölynpöly

Hyvää joulun ruokaa!

23 = 1+4+5+9+12+15+19+20+21+22

No, no, no - you were supposed to deliver presents in a white van. Pic via.

Lacking a sleigh, we have been playing 'white-van-mies' today... er, I mean Sunday (which was no. 21 in our virtual advent calendar), and which will have been two days ago when this gets published. By which I mean we have been driving around in a valkoinen paketti auto delivering little bundles of joy (no - not them, it didn't have a red cross and blue flashing lights) to various people. I refer you to exhibits 15, 19 & in one case 20 to a surprised Bore . In return we have consumed tea, coffee and soft-boiled eggs - as well as the more seasonal 4 & 9.  During these visits we talked about 21, 14, 22 & 5 (not looking promising), received 19, 15 & 12 (in kit form!) and observed 20, 11, 10, 7 & 16. Ymmärrättekö?

22 - Joululaulut II

More impenetrable Finnish 'christmas songs' for you ulkomalainen I'm afraid... this time from Vesa-Matti Loiri. 

Another week - another (in theory) suomen joulu flavoured musical odessy. VML ('Vesku') is a bit of an institution here, an actor an singer with a deep, gravely voice and dramatic/emotional delivery, who scored nil point at the 1980 eurovision song contest.  Musically... well let's just say at one point we were dangerously close to the theme from 'Bergerac': accordion, bass, and Mark Knopfler-esque guitar nooddling. So not really my cup of tea, coffee, or any other hot beverage (although he does have a fine voice, and I did like the use of a modern, amplified kantele in one song). So mielenkintoista...  is the best I could do when asked afterwards what I though. It's a shame that he didn't have the more orchestral backing shown in the video, because the setting would have suited it.

Oh yes, the setting - the reason I didn't put up to much resistance to seeing either him or the diddily-dingers last week. In a word: Aalto.

VPL VML was performing at Finlandia Talo Aalto's 'white phase' carrera-marble-clad concert hall which, although we had a lightning tour a few months ago, I wanted to experience in operation; and Rasvaton (whatever) were at Aalto's 50-year old 'red-phase' Kulttuuritalo - which won for me in terms of the flow of the architecture, clever canopy, and intimacy of the trademark asymmetric fan auditorium.  I could write lots more on both, but it has been all said before better than I could...

21 - Talvipäivän Seisaus

'Wintersunset' © Mikael Rantalainen

Aurinko nousee: 09.24

Aurinko laskee: 15.13

So today, the winter solstice or shortest day (in the northern hemisphere) the sun is (barely) above the horizon for a mere 5 hours and 48 minutes in Helsinki, more than 2 hours less than in London. Even at noon the sun is only 6.5º above the horizon, so usually still behind buildings and trees, even when it isn't cloudy.

Some great photos by Mikael Rantalainen of Finnish winter sunrise/sets can be found here. Makes me want to get my camera out and look for likely spots...

Strangely (as you may have learnt in your school geography lessons) the sun continues to rise later (by a few minutes) until about the 6th of January even though the days start getting longer, because of the earths inclination and elliptical orbit.

Yule (Joulu), the pre-christian celebration of the winter solstice has been long absorbed into first the christian and now the the pseudo-christian commercial holiday we have now (although a few days later) and in the celebrations of the new (calendar) year.

20 - Joulukuusi

kuusipuu via

Oi kuusipuu, oi kuusipuu ja lehväs uskolliset! Myös aina joulun aikahan sä saavut meidän majahan. Oi kuusipuu, oi kuusipuu ja lehväs uskolliset! - Mauno Isola

If you will not have your own Christmas tree, why don't you decorate this one instead?... Click here! You can see that also the Tiernapojat can be included in... Hmm.

Lost in Translation

-  I think I might try making some mince pies for Christmas for people to try. I'll have to make the mincemeat from scratch though.

- Ihana. Can you get all the ingredients here?

- Most of them are fairly easy; but I haven't seen candied peel or suet anywhere. What do you think?

- Mitä heleveti on suet!?

- It some sort of shredded fat. In the dictionary it translates as tali, if I ask in the shop do you think they'll have it?

- Ehkä... in a pet shop. That's what we call the ball of fat we put out for the birds!

- Perhaps we'll stick to joulutorttuja...

But is it as good as a mince pie? via by Robmcm

PS: Somehow I managed to scrape a 5 in my latest Finnish exam. 

Well actually I know how really: a) it was a fairly easy exam (compared to the course ); b) they lowered the pass mark for this grade as it has so many new grammar concepts in it. I would have got a 4 normally, which is still better than I expected. They are actually going to split it into two modules in the future (i.e. 8 weeks to cover instead of 4) this make sense as we had to cover - passiivi present & it's three past tenses, i-monikko one the plural forms (there are at least three I know of; this one applies to the 6 local cases, partitiivi and genitiivi, and is probably the most complicated thing to learn the rules for), the imperative, and more sentence types e.g. prediktiivi; all in only nine lessons. Actually maybe the sentence types are the hardest thing.  Although it was the passive I messed up on in the exam, so maybe... oh, never mind.

Anyway, this was the last part of the intensive basic grammar course I was doing, so next year I am looking for something more about actual spoken and written communication.  I'll probably will go back and do their advance course (levels 5-8) sometime though...

19 - Joululahja

Viivi handing over a joululahja to Wagner... not sure that's a good idea. Viivi & Wagner cartoons by JUBA.

Have you wrapped your gifts yet?

18 - Joulupukki (the real Santa Claus)

Joulupukki via

Okay, I don't want to hear any of your nonsense about Santa living at the north pole.

Joulupukki (which is the name for the official santa/father christmas/st. nicholas type gift-giving entity in these parts) lives in Finnish lapland, with his workshop near Korvatunturi (which means ear mountain - so that is how he hears what all of you good/bad boys/girls have been up to; as well as his tontu keeping an eye on you of course).  It's obvious if you think about it - where do reindeer live? Lapland! And what pulls Santa's sleigh...? Exactly!  These days he also has an office in Rovaneimi - from where he starts off to deliver christmas presents at 7pm on Christmas eve - if you don't believe me you can see it broadcast live.

Also that stuff about coming down chimneys at midnight is wrong too, as every Finnish child will tell you joulupukki often comes into the home on christmas eve about 7pm (so still a bit magical to do that everywhere at once...) after the Chrismas meal and hands over the goods in person  - none of that skulking around eating mince pies, drinking sherry and not being seen around here than you very much.

Of course this could all been started by eating the wrong kind of mushrooms, but at least these days joulupukki doesn't have horns, or demand presents from frightened children as he was said to in the past.

So it just remains to be asked: Onkos täällä kilttejä lapsia?

17 - Joulusauna

Who would have guessed the Finns like to have a sauna on Christmas eve?

(Although in the morning rather than evening - too much eating to do later...)

(Sorry Konna - the picture with the pig in the sauna [NSFW] was funnier, but the pig wasn't the only thing on show!)

16 - Jouluvalot

Christmas lights on Aleksanterinkatu: From Around Helsinki Winter 08/09

A is for Aleksanterinkatu. Typically un-ostentatious christmas lights on Helsinki's main shopping street (well, one of them - Stockmann is down the bottom somewhere).  And an old school tram. Nice.