Meänmaa Flag Day (Meänkieli: ''Meän flakun päivä''), Meänmaa Day or Torne Valley Day is a holiday celebrated in the Torne Valley/Meänmaa region on the 15th of

July July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. It was named by the Roman Senate in honour of Roman general Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., being the month of his birth. Before the ...

. The tradition was started by the association "Meänmaan Tinkerit", founded in 2007. The day has been marked as an official holiday in the

Swedish calendar The Swedish calendar () or Swedish style () was a calendar in use in Sweden and its possessions from 1 March 1700 until 30 February 1712. It was one day ahead of the Julian calendar and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. Easter was calculat ...

since 2015.

History

On July 15, 2017, a group of around 70 people from both sides of the border between Sweden and Finland gathered on the bridge between

Ylitornio Ylitornio (; ; ; ) is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the provinces of Finland, province of Lapland, Finland, Lapland along the Torne (Finnish and Swedish river), Tornio River, opposite the Sweden, Swedish ...

and

Aavasaksa Aavasaksa is a sharp-edged hill in Ylitornio municipality in Finnish Lapland. It has an elevation of . Aavasaksa is famous for its sights both towards Finland and Sweden, and it is included in the list of the National landscapes of Finland. Decora ...

. The event began at 11:30 AM with the carrying of flags from both

Övertorneå Övertorneå (; ) is a urban areas of Sweden, locality and the seat of Övertorneå Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden with 1,917 inhabitants in 2010. It is located at the shore of the Torne (Finnish and Swedish river), Torne River, oppos ...

on the Swedish side and

on the Finnish side. The groups met in the middle of the bridge, where a symbolic border stone was dropped from the bridge into the river as a sign of cross-border cooperation. Afterwards, a song in Meänkieli called "The River has Always Been" was sung. On July 20, a seminar was also held in Ylitornio about the Flag Day and the ceremony, where participants could join the Meänmaan Tinkerit association. The association’s membership card was designed to look like a Meänmaa passport. The flag-raising day became the association’s annual national day. After the day was established, the Meänmaan Tinkerit association proposed to the Swedish Academy that the day be added to the calendar. In response, the STR-T association, which represents the

Tornedalians Tornedalians (; ; ) are an Ethnicity, ethnic Minority group, minority native to the Torne Valley (Meänmaa) region in northern Sweden and Finland. Tornedalians were officially recognized as a national minority in Sweden in 2000. Tornedalians divi ...

, filed a complaint, arguing that not all residents of the region had been consulted. The issue was discussed, and in 2013 an agreement was reached to celebrate July 15 as a day for both the Tornedalians and the

Kvens Kvens (; ; ; ; ) are a Balto-Finnic ethnic group indigenous to the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of Russia. In 1996, Kvens were granted minority status in Norway, and in 2005 the Kven language was recognized as a minor ...

. Once all associations agreed on a common flag day, it meant that the day was for more than just

Meänkieli (literally 'our language'), or Tornedalian is a Finnic language or a group of distinct Finnish dialects spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden, particularly along the Torne River Valley. It is officially recognized in Sweden as one of the ...

speakers.

References

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Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...