I wrote about winter in Finland this year without the winter ever arriving, so I hope I’m having more luck with the summer. It’s been a bit rainy (yet warm) so far but that doesn’t really bother me. At this rate, I might have more luck with Tove Jansson’s Summer Book than with her Winter Book.
Summers in Finland are usually short but intense. Unlike some people think, it is not always cold and snowy in Finland. Finnish summers are actually pretty damn nice. They last from July to September give or take, the days are bright (you might have heard of the midnight sun) and often comfortably warm at 20-25°C. Although temperatures have sometimes come closer to 30°C in recent years, they are still nowhere near the 35-40 degrees my hometown in Germany is now regularly seeing. That’s too hot. The Finnish climate is just right for me. In my first years here, I found the long summer days much more difficult to get used to than the dark winter days. When it’s still bright at 12am, it’s weird to lie in bed thinking you need to sleep.
While the Finns snuggle away and make the most of the dark winters, Finland really thrives during summer as if they have to make up for the near-hibernation. Sleepy villages and towns transform into lively places of hustle and bustle as large city residents leave their homes in droves to spend their holidays in their often remote summer cabins they call mökki. As you marvel at scenic summer towns like Savonlinna, Uusikaupunki and Naantali, Finns will never fail to set you straight: these are summer towns, they let you know. They are dead in winter. While that might be true, I find it less surprising that towns are dead in winter than that seemingly every town seems to be able to become stunningly beautiful and lively during summer. That is really something.
Most Finns take their holidays at the same time in the period of late June to early August so the entire country is basically off for a few weeks which I still find strange. The entire country just shuts down.
Bonfires, booze and berries
Like winter, summer has its very own traditions and peculiarities. The most famous is midsummer (juhannus, in Finnish) in June. Midsummer is the time to celebrate the summer solstice that marks the longest day of the year. It is a national holiday and always falls on a Saturday but the festivities begin already on midsummer eve on the preceding day.
Midsummer is a time to get incredibly drunk enjoy a relaxing day with family or friends, stay up late and enjoy a bonfire. The celebrations predate Christianity, showing yet one more time that religions tend to merge with the traditions they encounter upon their arrival. I haven’t verified this myself but a friend told me that March is the month during which most the babies are born as that is nine months after midsummer (the serious rival is September because it is nine months after the boozy pre-Christmas parties called pikkujoulu in December). Midsummer, many Finns will let you know with a mischievous smile, is the time of love. And no midsummer is complete without hitting the sauna, preferably one fueled by firewood.
In recent years, the cities remain more lively during midsummer as more and more people opt to spend the holidays at home. It might be a generational thing, partly because buying cottages is beyond what many younger people can afford these days. I was told that back in the 80s, even the capital was a ghost town during midsummer. Today the cities are fairly deserted but most businesses are usually open.
Summer is also the time to eat. Nature is in full bloom and the forests are bursting with tasty stuff to pick. Berries are the all-time favourite with bilberries, lingonberries and strawberries high on the list but many people also buy peas and pick them one by one out of their pods. While I get the berries, I don’t understand the predilection for peas. Other favourites are mushrooms such as chanterelles and there are also some rather exotic but less common things like young birch leaves that some people toss into their salads. Finns freeze berries to enjoy them off-season and as I’ve recently learned, freezing them amounts to more than just chucking them into the freezer. It is almost a science. Berry pies, of course, abound in Finland, as do many other dishes made from berries, mushrooms and herbs (and many hygiene and beauty products contain these ingredients as well).
Back to the pre-industrial age
Picking these ingredients is a popular hobby but it is only one of the many outdoor activities Finns enjoy. Foraging for food, fishing, hunting, boating and forestry work are cultural institutions in their own right and spending time in the forests is a cherished experience, highlighting how strong the rural roots of many Finns still are. The countryside, which is called maaseutu, spellbinds the Finns, even if they come only for weekends or in the summertime. I have yet to meet a Finn who dislikes spending time in the countryside.
The countryside is not only a romantic ideal and an echo from a lost, pre-industrial past that people relive every once in a while. It is also a powerful political force that has (or should I say used to have?) a reliable representative in one of Finland’s most dominant political parties, the Center Party (Keskusta). The resistance to urbanization has been traditionally strong and Finland remains less urbanized than Sweden or Denmark. Economists and others have long decried this resistance as a futile and counterproductive exercise, hailing the benefits of urbanization for innovation. Yet the countryside keeps calling.
Over the years, I have heard many Finns declaring that they dream of permanently moving to the countryside, a wish that unfortunately will remain unfulfilled for most people as urbanization continues apace like it does everywhere else. It will be interesting to see if in a post-Corona world, a significant number of those who could do it, like software engineers, internet entrepreneurs and many white collar professionals, will do it. After all, many people realized in the last few months that there is very little reason to hang around in the office 40 hours a week. At least in the spring and summer, some people might spend a lot more time outside the big cities in the future. Many people won’t be able to.
I keep bringing this up but that’s because it fascinates me: people working in high-tech jobs with a strong affinity for countryside getaways where they give up many modern conveniences. Some even own houses without running water and electricity. Some people light up when they tell you how they are looking forward to chop some wood, go fishing and otherwise do nothing for weeks. This Finnish split personality is strange for someone like me who was born and bred in one of the most urbanized and industrialized agglomerations on the continent. Heating your house with firewood and collecting your own food didn’t really compute at first but after the culture shock subsided, I fell for it big time. I, too, light up when I think about heading to our family’s house in Savonia.
Summer tourism and weird events
Lapland tourism in winter dominates the industry but more and more people are visiting Finland during summer. As I’ve pointed out on my post about Finnish silence, Finns are marketing their country as the ideal getaway location to unplug in a faraway place. It is based on the mökki culture and the Finnish predilection for solitude and relaxed way of living. I’ve come to call this the Finnish La Dolce Vita because I find it so incredibly easy to enjoy life in Finland and Finns just seem to know how to live. Especially for those with fast-paced, stressful urban jobs, a week in the Finnish countryside with lots of sauna visits and not much else to do can do wonders.
This ties in with a rather weird aspect of Finland that becomes visible during summer. Like everywhere else, summer is the time for festivals and sports. But they come with a twist in Finland. Thanks to the internet, the country is fairly known these days for its strange sports and events that mostly take place during the summer and many of them attract people from around the world as participants. There are championships in air guitar playing, wife carrying, mud football and, owing to being once upon a time the center of the mobile phone industry, mobile phone throwing. Recently, heavy metal knitting (what?) has entered the list of weird events and I’m sure there are many more that I’m unaware of. I have no idea why unusual sports are so prevalent here but it sure is not hurting in the age of the internet where weird stuff spreads like wildfire.
Summer in Finland is wonderful. While it is not the cheapest place to vacation, I really recommend a visit during the summer months. Have some strawberries, try the peas, place your butt into the sauna and just let go. You can thank me later.