Muumi - Moomins

Image from Flickr, by Radical_Adult.

If you were to go into Stockmann's department store in central Helsinki, while getting lost in it's labyrinthine interior (or is that just me?) you might suddenly find yourself in the gift shop area, surrounded by Moomins, which seem to feature on at least 25% of the souvenirs there...  Of course this experience isn't just limited to Stockmann, it might happen in Kämp Galleria or the airport. And that's assuming you can avoid Naantali's very own Moominworld.  

So what's all the fuss about? Well since the resurgence in their popularity in the 90's (known as muumibuumi - honest), the Moomins have become almost as important to the outside world's picture of Finland (and hence tourism) as Santa Claus and his reindeer (Joloupukki lives in Rovaneimi in case you didn't know), sauna, snow, Sibelious, Aalto vases and stools (what, he designed buildings too?), Marimekko, wooden thingys (you know, like butter knives and kuksa's),  Mikko Hirvonen (ha! see I do know Finnish racing drivers other than Kimi and Heikki in F1 - oh, he's a WRC rally driver) and Lordi (actually maybe everyone has forgotten Finland won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 by now). There are even research papers on the subject. This would probably be better if 50% of the Moomin branded goods weren't complete tat, but hey, compared to some other children's book/cartoon character merchandising it's actually quite restrained, if occasionally a bit weird (Moomin brand Japanese sweets?); and some are positively artistic and tasteful.

Tove Jansson was an artist and illustrator as well as a writer for children and adults (and had a pretty radical, bohemian lifestyle back in 30's 40's & 50's) and this shows in the original illustrations (especially the woodcut style ones). The sometimes dark and chaotic stories (in a naive, childlike way) and strangely, and (perhaps) autobiographical characters are I suspect where the lasting (adult) interest comes from.  When coupled to Iittala's classic Teema ware (designed by Kaj Franck in 1952) you certainly have a better class of souvenir mug or bowl to collect.  No wonder they (Arabia Finland) release a new one every six months...

So Happy Birthday Lil' Sis (or should that be Pikku My?), maybe this is the start of a beautiful collection?