Finland's independence day is a national holiday which takes place on December 6. Independence is a very important thing to Finnish people. Finland was declared as an independent state from Russian empire on 6th of December 1917, so this year Finland celebrates its 90th independence day.

Finland's independence was threaten on 30th of November in 1939, when Soviet Union attacked Finland. This war is known as The Winter War (Fin: Talvisota). Russians had over 4 times more men, 200 times more tanks and 30 times more aircraft than Finns. However our will to fight was much bigger and our troops were better. Russia lost much more men and equipment than we. The  Moscow Peace Treaty was signed on March 1940. Finland lost about 10% of its territory but it is a small price for our independence. Again Finland and Soviet Union fought from June 25, 1941 to September 19, 1944. This war is called as The Continuation War (Fin: Jatkosota). This time Finland was the attacker. During this war German provided material and military cooperation to Finland. After the war Finland ended the cooperation with German.

Independence is still an important thing to us, so every Independence day The President of Finland invites about 2000 quests to a party called Linnanjuhlat ("the party at the castle").  Finnish people watches the party from TV. We are very grateful to those men and women who gained our freedom and those who fought for it during the World War 2.