Christmas traditions in Finland. The article is written by the students of class 7K

Four weeks before Christmas eve we light a candle every Sunday.
At school we also light candle but we do it on Friday.

Some people go to church to sing songs.

First Advent Sunday we celebrate ”pikkujoulu”( little Christmas).
We give little presents and prepare for Christmas.
At “pikkujoulu” the children can usually take candy and presents to school.
They swap presents, eat candy and sing Christmas songs.

Saint Lucia was born at 283 after Christ in Sicily Syracusa. Her mother got sick. It was a disease that’s survival chance was very small at that time, Lucia took her mother to Saint Agathas relic where she had heard that people have gotten  a miracle cure, and so her mother got cured, and Lucia turned to Christianity. At the same time, she had gotten engaged, but when she turned to Christianity, she swared to stay as a virgin like Saint Agatha and gave her comformable to the poor. When her Fiancé heard that she wasn’t going to marry him so he told the authorities, because in Rome Christianity was illegal. Lucia punctured her eyes, thinking that her fiancé wanted to marry her because of them,  but god rewarded Lucias faith and gave her her eyes back. A Syracusan prefect wanted to make sure she was really Christian, so he made her make a sacrifice to the Roman gods but Lucia answered “The only right way to a god was to help widows, orphans and pilgrims, and I made my sacrifice three years ago in the name of Jesus Christ when I gave away my possessions.” The prefect decided to punish her by sending her to a bordell, but Lucia refused. She was sentenced to be burned. The fire didn’t catch, so they summoned a executioner who stabbed her in the rid with a dagger. It was said that the executioner was her Fiancé. After she died, Lucia became one of the most significant Catholic saint.
Saint Lucia day is on 13.12. Usually the school picks a girl to walk around the school, dressed as Lucia, with two or more Lucia maidens on her both sides. In some Cities, they choose they’re own Lucia.

At Christmas we bring the christmas tree inside. We decorate christmas tree at chistmas eve.

-Niku & Ville-

At christmas we sing all kind of songs to santa claus and we can also sing together for fun. Example: “joulupukkii joulupukki, Porsaita äidin oomme kaikki.” We sing christmas  songs because it` s funny.
-Arttu-

Now we are going to tell you about Father Christmas and his flying reindeers.
Father Christmas lives in Korvatunturi. Korvatunturi is a small village and it is also a fell. There Father Christmas assistants make every presents that children have asked for. He has a sleigh and the reindeers are dragging it. Father Christmas favourite reindeer is Petteri Punakuono. Because he has a red nose and he runs really fast. Father Christmas recognizes his red suit and white beard.  

In Christmas people decorate the Christmas tree. When it gets dark people put lights all over the house and to their yard because in December it gets dark early. Some people want to put Christmas Elf’s all over the house because they are the helpers of Santa.

Christmas Evenings Program

We wake up at morning, has made riseporridge, that the whole family eats. That’s when we plan the day. After breakfast mum goes to shop to buy some food, for evening. She buys all kind of puddings, ham and drinks example “glögi”. After that mum puts the ham and puddings in to the oven. In the day we watch television and eat normal food. We also go out where we make snowmans and play snow-war. When we come back inside we go to the sauna and shower. After noon we go to the graveyard where we put candles on graves. At evening we eat the Cgristmas food and read the Holybible. After that the Santa Claus comes and he gives us the present. When the Santa Claus leaves we sing to him and open our own presents and test them. When the clock is about 12 at night we go to bed.

In Finland we eat many kinds of food at Christmas. At morning we make Christmas porridge, where we put an almond. It brings luck to him or her who gets it.
Someone eats Christmas porridge with plum soup. At Christmas Eve in the evening,  before opening presents the table is set full of food. There is a ham, potato-, carrot-, and swedepudding, salad of pickled herring and vegetables and everything else. For dessert we drink ‘’glögi’’ ( mulled wine ) and eat  gingerbread biscuits and pastries with plum jam. Those pastries are formed like stars. In “glögi” we put raisings, almonds or peanuts.
- Jessica & Vilma-

After Christmas dinner we go to sauna. First we warm up the saunastove. Somebody warms up it with wood, and somebody has got electric saunastove. They are the most general saunastove type. There is so hot, about 60-100 °C, because we throw water to the saunastove.
In sauna we whisk ourselves with birch whisk. When we do that, there break away some odour, and it smells like summer. It is tradition. And if there is a lake or sea  near by we can make hole in the ice and plop to there, water. We can perhaps roll naked in snow, it’s so refreshing.  In sauna some adults take one beer. And by the way, in sauna we are naked.

-Suvi & Anna-

We eat some delicious food with our friends and then it’s time for fireworks and we don’t sleep much, because we celebrate all night. It’s -20 degrees Centigrade at New Year’s eve and its pretty normal, because its cold because of that we have to wear a knitted cap, a mittens, a warm coat and a warm pants.

Our independence day is on the sixth of December. Every year the president invites famous Finnish people to Presidentin linna, presidential palace. There are athletes, actors and politicians for example. They’ve got beautiful dresses, and they dance the whole evening. The president, Tarja Halonen has welcomed them and started dancing. We can watch president’s dance from TV and we have our own dance at school. This year is Finland’s anniversary year: Finland became independent 1917. Our flag is white with blue cross. White is about snow, blue about lakes and sky, and cross about Christianity.