…the day of the Finnish national epic and Finnish culture is celebrated today on February 28th. Their clothing has Kalevala and modern influences.
Although Väinämöinen is capable of singing other people into a swamp, he hasn’t melted all the ice and snow we have here right now. The photo is from a dragon boat race a few summers ago.
Elias Lönnrot compiled the epic based on folk poems he collected during his travels.
Read and hear more
- Kalevala at wikipedia
- A sang Kalevala poem. Everybody in Finland will recognize the melody. (the text in the video is not in Finnish)
Today is also the 25th anniversary of the murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme. Let’s see if the Swedish city daily photobloggers write about him.
The unsolved murder has been one of the biggest news stories also in Finland during my lifetime.
Looks like a very fun tradition! they must have been rather cold in that boat, non?
I’m quite sure a dragon boat race keeps them warm.
Thanks for this great photo and for informing me about Kalevala Day. I too wrote a post about it, after learning from you.
Kiitos.