INDEPENDENCE DAY IN FINLAND

INDEPENDENCE DAY

 

 

The 6th of December Finland celebrate it independence day, as all of you know Finland was conquered by Swedish and later on by Russian. Finland became independent in 1918, and became a european member in 1994.

Each city have a different way of celebrating. Last year I was in Jyväskylä for the independence day, and the tradition in this city is made a kind of parade full of finnish flags and candles around the city center, everyone can participate in this parade, you just need to carry some candles. The parade ends at the old cementery, many Finns leave candles at the cemetery in memory of those who lost their lives in war, then there is a chorus singing some sad finnish songs (that is what my finnish friends told me, unluckily I don´t understand much finnish yet), when the chorus finish an old soldier from the war do a speech about how he lived the war.  

This year I celebrate the independence day in Lahti, the

tradition here is quite different than in Jyväskylä, all the people go to the small lake close to the harbour, instead of the city center like in Jyväskylä, there is a light show in the fountain that change colors depending on the music that is playing, it last around ten minutes, even though is a bit too short it worth to see it, my favourite part was when ithey were playing the finnish anthem with the different lights  it  was very emotional. After it there is some nice fireworks.

But there is some common things for all the country, most of the finnish families light two candles half blue and half white ( finnish flag colors) during this day, and watch on TV the program Linnanjuhlat ( the finnish prime minister celebrate a huge party and all the finnish celebrities go there). I am not agree with this last "tradition". Independence celebration should be more related with the war not with a party, I don´t see the point of it.