Finnish Festivities and Specialities

What makes Finland special? The only way you can really find out is by coming to visit. Time your trip for one of the annual festive periods and you’ll get a taste of a uniquely Finnish atmosphere.

Your chances of a white Christmas, for instance, are good in Finland, and it’s an especially cosy time of the year, no matter how cold it is outside. Midsummer, on the other hand, is more expansive celebration of abundant daylight, a time to relax at a water-side cottage or forest retreat, sampling the invigorating national sauna-bathing ritual. Finns relish their traditions, but there is another, more forward-looking side to their national character, most obviously reflected in innovative Finnish high technology. The global success and prominence of mobile phone company Nokia, for instance, is a source of Finnish national pride.

Click on to the Finnish Speciality Attractions




	Easter Easter in Finland is a restrained celebration of the resurrection of Christ, but it is also a chance to gently acknowledge the gradual arrival of spring. A week or so before the Easter weekend, children plant grass seeds, watching them grow in velvety green mats, and willow twigs are cuts and brou Read more


	Finnish Christmas Christmas is probably the Finns' most important festive period, regarded widely as a family event. Christmas in Finland is celebrated over three days, with the main festivities taking place on Christmas Eve (December 24), when Finns eat Christmas dinner and gifts are distributed. Christmas Day is a Read more


	Finnish Cuisine Finns have grown increasingly confident about their own cuisine in recent years, realising that the quality of fresh Finnish ingredients matches that of food just about anywhere else. Fish figures prominently on Finnish menus – naturally enough for a country that boasts over 60,000 lakes and over Read more


	Midsummer in Finland A Finnish festival with recognisably pagan and pre-Christian roots is Midsummer, when the sun hardly sets in the south - and not at all in the north. The public holiday of Midsummer, the feast day of St John the Baptist and known as ‘Juhannus’ in Finnish, is celebrated on the weekend closest to the Read more


	New Year New Year celebrations are just as much fun in Finland as they are elsewhere. However, the Finnish scenery, the snow and the Arctic weather add local flavour to the celebrations. Firework displays mark the turn of the year, but with luck visitors to the north may also witness nature’s own spectacul Read more


	Nokia and High-Tech Revolution The rise of Nokia in the 1990s from a company named after a small Finnish town whose products included Wellington boots and toilet rolls to one of the biggest technological trend-setters of the late 20th century is an extraordinary story. Nokia, now the biggest producer of mobile phones and handse Read more


	Summer Houses The Finnish summer home is ideally situated close to water – sea or lake, it doesn’t matter – on a forested shoreline, with a wood-burning sauna within easy reach. The Finnish summer is relatively short but is flooded with magical light and a surge of natural growth, every moment of which Finns sa Read more


	The Delights of the Sauna Sauna is not just the only Finnish word to have entered the world vocabulary – it’s a ritual, an institution, an essential element of the Finnish way of life. It can also be very relaxing, exhilarating and enjoyable, and no visit to Finland is complete without sampling the sauna. The Finnish sauna, Read more