Here's a neat video showing two pretty impressive ice oriented holiday adventures in Kemi, Finland. The first is an ice hotel (snow castle) which changes architect and architecture each year; the second is going onboard an ice breaker. Very cool ;-)

11/10/08 by visitEarth
Tags: Finland, holiday, adventure, ice breaker, ice hotel, ice, hotel, Kemi

 

Throughout Finland's prehistory and history, cultural contacts and influences have concurrently, or at varying times, come from all directions. As a result of Swedish and Russian rule, cultural influences are still notable. Today, cultural influences from North America are prominent. Into the twenty-first century, many Finns have contacted cultures from distantly abroad, such as with those in Asia and Africa. Beyond tourism, Finnish youth in particular have been increasing their contact with peoples from outside Finland by travelling abroad to both work and study.

One of the most traditional activities characterised by the Finnish culture is cottage life by a lake, often combined with going to sauna, swimming and barbecuing. Many Finns are emotionally connected to the countryside and nature, as urbanisation is a relatively recent phenomenon. The Finnish mentality is often characterised by less small talking and more honest and straight forward type of communication compared to other cultures. This is reflected in exceptionally powerful words in the Finnish language, such as the swear word "perkele".

There are still differences between regions, especially minor differences in accents and vocabulary. Minorities, such as the Sami, Finland Swedes, Romani, and Tatar, maintain their own cultural characteristics.

Literature: Though Finnish written language could be said to exist since Mikael Agricola translated the New Testament into Finnish in the sixteenth century as a result of the Protestant Reformation, few notable works of literature were written until the nineteenth century, which saw the beginning of a Finnish national Romantic Movement. This prompted Elias Lönnrot to collect Finnish and Karelian folk poetry and arrange and publish them as Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. The era saw a rise of poets and novelists who wrote in Finnish, notably Aleksis Kivi and Eino Leino.

After Finland became independent there was a rise of modernist writers, most famously Mika Waltari. Frans Eemil Sillanpää was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1939 – so far the only one for a Finnish author. The second World War prompted a return to more national interests in comparison to a more international line of thought, characterized by Väinö Linna. Literature in modern Finland is in a healthy state, with detective stories enjoying a particular boom of popularity. Ilkka Remes, a Finnish author of thrillers, is very popular.

Music: The music of Finland can be roughly divided in the following three categories.

Folk music is typically influenced by Karelian traditional tunes and lyrics of the Kalevala metre. Karelian heritage has traditionally been perceived as the purest expression of Finnic myths and beliefs, thought to be spared from Germanic and Slavic influences. In the west of the country, more mainstream Nordic folk music traditions prevail. The Sami people of northern Finland have their own musical traditions, collectively Sami music. Finnish folk music has undergone a roots revival in the recent decades, and has also become a part of popular music.

In the field of classical music, Finland has produced a proportionally exceptional number of world class artists.

Contemporary music includes e.g. a renowned metal music scene, in common with the other Nordic countries, as well as a number of prominent rock and pop bands, jazz musicians, hip hop performers and makers of dance music. A Schlager scene with bandstand dancing exists where Finnish tango, somewhat modified from the Argentinian, is also popular.

Cuisine: The cuisine of Finland is notable for the use of wholemeal products (rye, barley, oats) and berries (such as blueberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, and sea buckthorn). Milk and its derivatives like buttermilk are commonly used as food, drink or in various recipes. Various turnips were common in traditional cooking, but were substituted by the potato after its introduction in the 18th century.

Modern Finnish cuisine combines traditional country fare and haute cuisine with contemporary continental style cooking. Fish and meat play a prominent role in traditional Finnish dish from the western part of the country, while the dishes from the eastern part have traditionally included various vegetables and mushrooms, of which especially the latter were introduced to the dining tables of the western side as late as during World War II by refugees from Karelia.

In the new Finnish kitchen, dishes are lighter, smaller, and generally contain several different vegetables. This mode of cooking is highly influenced by European and American cuisine.

Traditional Finnish cuisine shares a lot with Swedish, German and Russian cuisines. However, there are differences in preparation techniques: for example, Finnish dishes tend to be less sweet than Swedish ones, and Finns use little or no sour cream (smetana) in preparation compared to their Russian neighbours. Several traditional Swedish or Russian dishes are also absent.

Note that the term perinneruoka ("traditional dish" ) is often applied to specialities that are rarely eaten on a daily basis. These are often regional, associated with the older generations or confined to a specific holiday (for example, mämmi in Easter), and most people eat them rarely or not at all. To contrast with perinneruoka, the term kotiruoka ("home-made food", even if in a restaurant) is applied to daily staple dishes. Meatballs, pea soup and rye bread are examples of such staples.

additional information from Wikipedia

11/10/08 by visitEarth
Tags: Finland, culture, music, literature, cuisine, art, Finnish culture

 

Finland is a country of thousands of lakes and islands – 187,888 lakes (larger than 500 m²) and 179,584 islands. One of these lakes, Saimaa, is the fifth largest in Europe. The Finnish landscape is mostly flat with few hills, and its highest point, the Halti at 1,324 metres, is found in the extreme north of Lapland at the border between Finland and Norway.

The landscape is covered mostly (seventy-five percent of land area) by coniferous taiga forests and fens, with little arable land. The most common type of rock is granite. It is a ubiquitous part of the scenery, visible wherever there is no soil cover. Moraine or till is the most common type of soil, covered by a thin layer of humus of biological origin. Podzol profile development is seen in most forest soils except where drainage is poor. Gleysols and peat bogs occupy poorly drained areas. The greater part of the islands are found in the southwest in the Archipelago Sea, part of the archipelago of the Åland Islands, and along the southern coast in the Gulf of Finland.

Finland is one of the few countries in the world whose surface area is still growing. Owing to the post-glacial rebound that has been taking place since the last ice age, the surface area of the country is growing by about 7 square kilometres (2.7 square miles) a year.

The distance from the most Southern point – Hanko – to the most northern point of Finland – Nuorgam – is 1,445 kilometres (898 miles) (driving distance), which would take approximately 18.5 hours to drive. This is very similar to Great Britain (Land's End to John o' Groats – 1,404 kilometres (872 miles) and 16.5 h).

The climate in Southern Finland is a northern temperate climate. In Northern Finland, particularly in the Province of Lapland, a subarctic climate dominates, characterised by cold, occasionally severe, winters and relatively warm summers. The main factor influencing Finland's climate is the country's geographical position between the 60th and 70th northern parallels in the Eurasian continent's coastal zone, which shows characteristics of both a maritime and a continental climate, depending on the direction of air flow. Finland is near enough to the Atlantic Ocean to be continuously warmed by the Gulf Stream, which explains the unusually warm climate considering the absolute latitude.

A quarter of Finland's territory lies above the Arctic Circle, and as a consequence the midnight sun can be experienced – for more days, the farther north one travels. At Finland's northernmost point, the sun does not set for 73 consecutive days during summer, and does not rise at all for 51 days during winter.

additional information from Wikipedia

11/10/08 by visitEarth
Tags: Finland, geography, landscape, glacier, climate, Europe