Culture of Finland

The culture of Finland combines indigenous heritage, as represented for example by the country's national languages Finnish (a Uralic language) and Swedish (a Germanic language), the sauna, with common Nordic and European cultural aspects. Because of its history and geographic location, Finland has been influenced by the adjacent areas, various Finnic and Baltic peoples as well as the former dominant powers of Sweden and Russia. Finnish culture is built upon the relatively ascetic environmental realities, traditional livelihoods, and heritage of egalitarianism (e.g. Everyman's right, universal suffrage) and the traditionally widespread ideal of self-sufficiency (e.g. predominantly rural lifestyles and modern summer cottages).

There are cultural differences among various regions of Finland, especially minor differences in dialect. Minorities, some of which have a status recognised by the state, such as the Sami, Swedish-speaking Finns, Romani, Jews, and Tatars, maintain their cultural identities within Finland. Many Finns are emotionally connected to the countryside and nature, as large-scale urbanisation is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Historical overview

The Scandinavian ice sheet covered most of northern Europe. Following its recession around 8000 BC, people began arriving in what is today Finland, with a majority presumably traveling from the south and east. Recent archaeological finds also reveal the presence of the north-western Komsa culture in northern Finland to be as old as the earliest discoveries on the Norwegian coast.

What is today Finland belonged to the northeastern Kunda culture until around 5000 BC and the Comb Ceramic culture from about 4200–2000 BC. The Kiukainen culture appeared on the southwestern coast of Finland around 1200 BC.

From 1100 to 1200, the crown of Sweden started to incorporate Finland. However, Novgorod also attempted to gain control. Several wars occurred between 1400 and 1700 where Finland fought against Sweden, Novgorod, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and imperial Russia. In 1721, the Nystad Peace Treaty was signed, ending Swedish dominance in the Baltic region. In 1809, Finland was annexed by Russia. From 1809 to 1917, Finland was a Grand Duchy with the Russian Czar as the constitutional monarch. In southeastern Finland, the region of Karelia, where most of the Russo-Swedish conflicts occurred, was influenced by both cultures while remaining peripheral to both epicentres of power. The verses in Finland's national epic, the ''Kalevala'', originate mainly from Karelia and Ingria.

The 19th century brought a feeling of national Romanticism and Nationalism throughout Europe. Finland's nationalism also grew, forming cultural identity and making control of the land a priority. Expression of Finnish identity by the University docent, A. I. Arwidsson (1791–1858), became an often quoted Fennoman credo: "Swedes we are not, Russians we do not want to become, let us, therefore, be Finns." Nationalism heightened and resulted in a declaration of independence from Russia on December 6, 1917, Finnish Independence Day. Notably, nationalists did not consider the Swedish-speakers members of a different (Swedish) nation; in fact, many Fennomans came from Swedish-speaking families.

Ethnic groups and languages

Finns

The majority ethnic group of Finland is the Finns. Most Finns speak Finnish as their mother tongue. The Finnish language is not an Indo-European language. It belongs to the Uralic language family. Finns are traditionally divided into subgroups (''heimo'') based on their dialect, but these groupings have only minor importance due to 20th-century urbanization and internal migration.

Swedish-speaking Finns

The largest subculture in Finland is its Swedish-speaking Finns. The political party Swedish People's Party (), has traditionally had a small but important part of the Swedish-Finnish culture. The daily newspaper ''Hufvudstadsbladet'' ('Capital City Paper') is the biggest Swedish daily newspaper in Finland and has its headquarters in Helsinki. The Swedish-speaking minority has been the target of harassment and discrimination in Finland. They are still considered the upper-class in Finland, especially in Helsinki, and have earned nicknames, such as "Svenska talande bättre folk" ('Swedish speaking better people'). Swedish-Finns are also sometimes referred to as "Ankkalampi" (''Ankdammen'' or 'The Duck Pond') due to their relatively small number where everybody knows each other. Today, however, most differences are blurred (though rich, powerful Swedish-speaking families still exist) due to mixed marriages and inter-cultural homogenization and communication. The Swedish-Finnish group does have unique traditions distinct from the mainstream Finnish-speaking ones but does not live in a different society. The group has various origins, both from language switching and from immigration.

Sami

The Lapland region of the North holds the Sami population. Up to around 1500, the Sami were mainly fishermen and trappers, usually in a combination, leading a nomadic lifestyle decided by the migrations of the reindeer. Traditionally, Sami people engaged in fishing, trapping and herding reindeer. They have traditionally organized their societies differently from the Finns due to their nomadic lifestyle. Their native language is not Finnish, but one of the three Sami languages spoken in Finland. However, modern times have brought most Sami to urban areas, where they assimilate to mainstream society and speak Finnish. 10% of Sami continue herding in Northern Finland. Currently, the Sami are a 5% minority in their native Finnish Lapland.

Romani

Another nomadic group is the Finnish Gypsies who have existed since the 17th century. For centuries Gypsy men were horse traders, whereas in the post-war era they have turned to horse breeding and dealing in automobiles and scrap metal. Women traditionally engage in fortune-telling and handcrafts. Gypsies have been the target of harassment and discrimination in Finland. "A permanent Advisory Commission on Gypsy Affairs was set up in 1968, and in 1970 racial discrimination was outlawed through an addition to the penal code. The law punished blatant acts such as barring Gypsies from restaurants or shops or subjecting them to unusual surveillance by shopkeepers or the police." Today, financial aid is provided to improve the standard of living for 5,000–6,000 Finnish Gypsies.

Social beliefs

Gender equality

After examining the position of women around the world, the Washington-based Population Crisis Committee reported in 1988 that Finland, slightly behind top-ranked Sweden and just ahead of the United States, was one of the very best places in which a woman could live. The group reached this conclusion after examining the health, educational, economic, and legal conditions that affect women's lives.

When compared with women of other nations, Finnish women, who accounted for just over 50 percent of the population in the mid-1980s, did have a privileged place. They were the first in Europe to gain the franchise, and by the 1980s they routinely constituted about one-third of the membership of the Eduskunta (parliament) and held several ministerial posts. In the 1980s, about 75 percent of adult women worked outside the home; they made up about 48 percent of the workforce. Finnish women were as well educated as their male counterparts, and, in some cases, the number of women studying at the university level, for example, was slightly ahead of the number of men. In addition to an expanding welfare system, which since World War II had come to provide them with substantial assistance in the area of childbearing and child-rearing, women had made notable legislative gains that brought them closer to full equality with men.

In 1972 the was established to advise lawmakers on methods for realizing full legal equality for women. In 1983 legislation arranged that both parents were to have equal rights for custody of their children. A year later, women were granted equal rights in the establishment of their children's nationality. Henceforth any child born of a Finnish woman would have Finnish citizenship. After a very heated national debate, legislation was passed in 1985 that gave women an equal right to decide what surname or surnames they and their children would use. These advances were capped by that went into effect in early 1987 forbidding any discrimination based on sex and protecting against this discrimination. Once these laws were passed, Finnish authorities signed the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1986.

In several areas, however, the country's small feminist movement maintained that the circumstances in which Finnish women lived needed to be improved. Most striking was the disparity in wages. Although women made up just under half the workforce and had a tradition of working outside the home, they earned only about two-thirds of the wages paid to men. Occupations in which women predominated, such as those of retail and office personnel, were poorly paid in contrast to those in which men constituted the majority. Despite the sexes' equal educational attainments, and despite a society where sexual differentiation played a smaller role than it did in many other countries, occupational segregation in Finland was marked. In a few of the twenty most common occupations were the two sexes equally represented. Only in occupations relating to agriculture, forestry, and school teaching was a rough parity approached, and as few as 6 percent of Finns worked in jobs where 40 to 60 percent of workers were of the opposite sex. Studies also found that equal educational levels did not—in any category of training—prevent women's wages from lagging behind those paid to men. Women tended to occupy lower positions, while males were more often supervisors or managers. This was the case everywhere, whether in schools or universities, in business, in the civil service, or politics at both the local level and the national level.

In addition to occupying a secondary position in the workplace, women had longer workdays because they performed a greater share of household tasks than did men. On the average, their workweek outside the home was several hours shorter than men's because a greater number of them were employed only part-time or worked in the service sector, where hours were shorter than they were in manufacturing. Studies have found, however, that women spent about twice as much time on housework as men—about three hours and forty minutes a day, compared with one hour and fifty minutes for men. Men did twice as many household repairs and about an equal amount of shopping, but they devoted only one-third to one-fourth as much time to cleaning, cooking, and caring for children. Given that the bulk of family chores fell to women, and that they were five times more likely than men to head a single-parent family, the shortcomings of Finland's child day-care system affected women more than it did men.
The Equality Law that went into effect in 1987 committed the country to achieve full equality for women. In the late 1980s, there was a timetable listing specific goals to be achieved during the remainder of the 20th century. The emphasis was equality for everyone, rather than protection for women. Efforts were undertaken not only to place women in occupations dominated by males but also to bring males into fields traditionally believed to belong to the women's sphere, such as child care and elementary school teaching. Another aim was for women to occupy a more equal share of decision-making positions.Text from PD source: US Library of Congress:
A Country Study: Finland
', Library of Congress Call Number DL1012 .A74 1990.

Since the 1986 Equality Act, a number of updates have been made. The most recent, the Non-Discrimination Act passed in 2015, prohibited discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression and a gender equality plan requirement was extended to comprehensive schools and employers. It also made pay surveys more precise, a was established, and the independent position of the was strengthened. It has been clarified that in the Equality Act, the phrase 'gender identity' refers to an individual's experience of their own gender, through clothing, behaviour, or by other means.

Family structure

The Finnish family life is usually understood to be centered on the nuclear family, rather than the extended family. There are usually one or two children in a family. Traditionally, men were the wage-earners and women remained in the home and cared for children. However, since the Second World War, gender roles have changed. Today, both men and women are dual wage-earners. The welfare system allows for generous parental leave with income-based benefits. Finnish parents have the option to take partial or total leave they are entitled to. A majority of mothers opt to take longer leave, up to one year. Finland's divorce rate is 51% of marriages being dissolved (Statistics Finland, updated 5/07). Cohabitation is also common. Finland has the highest proportion of quarter lifers, (those in their twenties) who have left the nest (i.e. no longer live with parents) in Europe.

Etiquette

Finnish people are stereotyped as being very introverted, having little interest in small talk, and being very protective of their personal space. This was the subject of a 2005 book '' Finland: Cultural Lone Wolf'' by Richard Lewis. In October 2018, the BBC published an article on this subject.

Economic equality

The Finnish society encourages equality and liberalism with a popular commitment to the ideals of the welfare state; discouraging disparity of wealth and division into social classes. Everyman's right (Ministry of Environment, 1999) is a philosophy carried over from ancient times. All citizens have access to public and private lands for agrarian activities or leisure. Finns value being close to nature; the agricultural roots are embedded in the rural lifestyle. Finns are also nationalistic, as opposed to self-identification with ethnicity or clan.

With the emergence of reform, the Compulsory Education Act made education a civil right and available to all citizens, except for tertiary education, which is free of charge, and admissions are based strictly on test scores. The beliefs of the Finns are future employment security necessitating higher education in today's increasingly technological world.

Religion

Prior to the Christianization of Finland in the 11th century, Finnish paganism was the primary religion. Song magic and bear worship were distinctive marks of the ancient religion. A contemporary revival of the belief system exists, called ''suomenusko''.

Christianity entered Finnish culture in the 12th century. As in 2016, 72.8% of Finns belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church and 1.1% belong to the Finnish Orthodox Church.

Holidays and festivals

Finnish holidays are similar to the Western Christian calendar and Protestant traditions. Holidays and traditions are a blend of the thousand year old Christian presence and vestiges of old Finnish pagan traditions.

Notable among these is ''Juhannus'', the Finnish Midsummer. A majority of Finns retreat to summer cottages (''mökki'') on any one of Finland's numerous lakes. Depending on the region, a bonfire at midnight celebrates the summer solstice, and in Åland, the Swedish-originated tradition of dancing around the Maypole is observed. The midsummer traditions also include different versions of pairing magic and folklore in the festivities. Midsummer Day is also Flag Day in Finland.

The Finnish Christmas, ''Joulu'', follows traditions of Christmas trees and the Advent calendars. Holidays start on December 23. Gift giving occurs on Christmas Eve with a visit from Joulupukki (Father Christmas, Santa Claus). Traditional meals are typically only eaten on Christmas followed by sauna. Christmas Day is reserved for a "quiet day" and the holidays end after the 26th, St. Stephen's Day (''tapaninpäivä'').

Easter is a combination of Christian and Pagan customs. Either on Palm Sunday or the Holy Saturday, children dress up as witches (''noita'') and go from door to door, giving away daffodil adorned branches of willow in exchange for sweets. This is similar to the celebration of Halloween in some countries (such as the United Kingdom and the United States). Burning Easter bonfires is a Pagan custom meant to keep witches at bay.

Vappu, or May Day is a national holiday, an event for Finns to emphatically welcome spring after several months of little daylight. It can be compared to Mardi Gras with parades and parties. Traditionally, the event begins on the eve of Vappu by former and current students putting on their student caps (graduation cap).

Finnish Independence Day is December 6 and a national holiday.

Public holidays

All official holidays in Finland are established by acts of Parliament. The official holidays can be divided into Christian and secular holidays. The main Christian holidays are Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension Day, Pentecost, and All Saints' Day. The secular holidays are New Year's Day, May Day, Midsummer Day, and the Independence Day. Christmas is the most extensively celebrated holiday: usually at least December 24 to 26 are holidays.

Sauna

Sauna is a type of dry steam bath practiced widely in Finland. The word is of Proto-Finnish origin (found in Finnic and Sámi languages) dating back 7,000 years. The sauna's purpose is to bathe, and the heat (either dry or steam) opens pores in the skin and thoroughly cleanses the body. Cedar or birch branches can be tapped along the body to stimulate blood circulation. The sauna soothes sore and aching muscles. The Finns often use and have used the sauna to recover from hard physical labor. Sauna culture dictates subdued speech and time for thought to soothe the mind. Sauna is not to be rushed as it is essential to spiritual living. The structure of the sauna began as a small log building partially buried in the earth. A " smoke sauna" was used to cure meats in pre-industrial years as well as, to bathe or a sterile environment for childbirth, but this tradition has declined in favor of a modern invention, the continuously heated sauna, which is hotter, cleaner and faster to heat up. In Finnish saunas, temperature is set to about 60–100 °C (sometimes up to 120 °C), and small amounts of water thrown on rocks atop the stove emit steam, which produces a heat sensation. Some Finns prefer the "dry sauna" using very little steam if any. Traditional sauna includes the process of perspiring and cooling several times. A part of the cooling process is a swim in the lake before returning to the sauna for an additional sweat.

Steam baths have been part of European tradition elsewhere as well, but the sauna has survived best in Finland, in addition to Sweden, the Baltic States, Russia, Norway, and parts of the United States and Canada. Moreover, nearly all Finnish houses have either their own sauna or in multistory apartment houses, a timeshare sauna. Public saunas were previously common, but the tradition has declined when saunas have been built nearly everywhere (private homes, municipal swimming halls, hotels, corporate headquarters, gyms, etc.).

Literature

Though Finnish written language could be said to exist since Mikael Agricola translated the New Testament into Finnish in the 16th century as a result of the Protestant Reformation, few notable works of literature were written until the 19th 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. Juhani Aho was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twelve times.

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 Nobel prize-winning 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. Juha Vuorinen has received the Kultapokkari ('Golden Paperback') award for his humorous books, and in all has sold over two million books in Finland.

Visual arts

Innovative functionalist movements have distinguished design of furniture, ceramics, glass, and textiles as well the Finnish architecture. Finnish design combines local artistic themes with tools and materials adapted to demanding northern conditions. Many artists and architects, from Akseli Gallen-Kallela to Alvar Aalto, have designed furniture and tableware during their career.

Forces, shapes, colors, and textures of the northern landscape and the human relationship to nature have strongly influenced also painting, sculpture, and other art forms. This is particularly evident in the representational romantic nationalism that blossomed at the end of the 19th century.

Abstract art movements did not gain a foothold until the 1950s. When Sam Vanni

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