Finnish Four Seasons

The year in Finland is distinctively divided into four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and autumn. We are just overcoming winter, which was much warmer than usual. The winter temperatures have been recorded for a hundred years, and only one winter, in 1924-5, was warmer than now. This winter was 4 - 6,5 centigrades warmer than the average (-20 to 0 centigrades, depending on the latitude) in more than 30 years. In practice, this means that Southern Finland and the coastal areas have been snowless, and children there do not learn to ski.

The seas in Finland did not freeze this winter at all, and the ice on the lakes has been much thinner than usual. This has, unfortunately, resulted in many drownings because Finns love winter fishing in holes in the ice and they cannot help going on weak ice.

On the other hand, the best skiing season (February to April) is now on in Lapland and most of the winter sports centres are fully booked. Central Finland has enjoyed a good skiing and skating season from February to March. The vernal equinox (the day is as long as the night) was on March 20, so we have again a lot of light, after a dark winter.

April and May are the very spring months, and it is always astonishing how quickly the growing season begins. We may have half a metre of snow in early April and in four weeks it is green all over. So, in this sense, we do not agree that "April is the gruellest month" but rather a promise of the coming summer. In May people start cleaning their yards and preparing their gardens and seeing their neighbours and in late Mayand early June the flowers are here once more and summer begins.

Summer is the time in Finland when everyone takes it easier. Collectively, life is bearable (we have a tendency to inwardness and melancholy), we are happier and much more sociable than in winter. It is light and warm (hopefully) and we do not have to be so very responsible for everything all the time. The Finnish summer is full of events and festivals, please see www.visitfinland.com where you can see that we have World Champioships in most peculiar sports,such as boot throwing, wife carrying and swamp football. Admittedly, the Estonians have won the WC in wife carrying for the ten last years.

Summer is also the time for the annual holidays of four to five weeks, most commonly between Midsummer and the end of July, and during this period the whole country is more or less "closed", i.e. it is hard to get anything done e.g. in public service offices, and any mistakes in working life are put on the summer apprentices or substitues. Closeness is especially true of Midsummer, is the greatest feast of the summer with its bonfires (in the Finnish regions) and decorated poles (in the Swedish speaking regions). This is the time for spending time at summer cottages, for visiting family, friends and festivals, whether they be musical, arts, literary, sports or beer drinking ones. Since the 1950s, having a summer cottage has become more and more usual, and now there are some half a million summer cottages, most preferably by a lake or by the sea. The most common activity at the summer houses is fishing, with different kinds of traps, and the world's oldest fishing nets - appr. 8000 years old - were found in Finland on the Karelian Isthmus (which now belongs to Russia).

In August, days become again shorter and it is dark in the evenings. August may be a lovely month with velvety darkness when it is still relatively warm, but the main rule in Finland is: when it is dark, it is also cold. Late summer and early autumn are also the time for harvest for farmers and wild berry picking for everyone.

September is already autumn, and this is the time for wild mushroom picking. In Finland we have "everyman's right", a legal right to access all forests and other places, provided we do not go to the land owner's front door to do the picking. Mid-September is usually the best time to go trekking in Lapland if you want to see the colourful landscape with all the leave trees carrying yellow, golden, red leaves before dropping them and subduing to winter. The first snow usually comes in October to December, but most probably due to global warming, we now have had a couple of winters with no snow before January or even February. A snowless Christmas is something Finns consider unnatural, but obviously we have to get used to it. October to December is the darkest time and then many Finns spend a holiday in sunnier and warmer countries, such as Spain or Thailand.

Christmas is the greatest highlight of the winter. It is a family feast with traditional food and quiet leisurely days. And of course, we have Father Christmas, who lives at one of the mountains on the Russian border zone. The winter solstice (the day is at its shortest) on December 21, and after that the days start becoming longer and Finns start waiting and planning activities for spring and summer.