Juhannus in Helsinki Don't put anything here Page Content Page Name (for URL) Page Title Breadcrumb Text Don't put anything here <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2004-06-25-b-juhannus/20040625_141_6585 2004-06-25-b-juhannus/20040625_211_6520 2004-06-25-b-juhannus/20040625_271_2067 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> Last night Finland celebrated Midsummer Eve. It's an ancient pagan holiday which has been adopted by the church as "St. John's Day", and is hence referred to as "Juhannus". A very similar holiday existed in Russia at some point but has disappeared since. In Finland, however, Midsummer is one of the biggest holidays of the year still. Most people head to their summer holidays for the long weekend (and many then stay there for the duration of their summer vacations), but there were a few people left in the city - it wasn't quite as dead as American cities tend to be on Christmas day. I was advised to go to an island in Helsinki called Seurasaari, where there were some public celebrations, including a craft fair, singing, skits and bonfires at night. Afterwards I went to check out downtown Helsinki, which was far from empty, but instead was filled with street musicians and happy drunk people. Advanced Fields Category 2002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014E. AsiaE. EuropeL's FamilyL's FriendsN. AmericaN. EuropeS. AmericaS. AsiaW. EuropeY & LY's FamilyY's Friends Don't put anything here Prototype Redirect Permissions0 Actions Config Markup Module HTML/Meta/Keywords HTML/Meta/Description Save Hook HTML Fields Main Head Body Header Menu Logo Content Template Page Sidebar Footer Tags Allowed for XSSFilter Don't put anything here HTTP Fields Cache-Control Expires Guru Fields Templates Translations Fields Edit UI Admin Edit UI A summary of your changes Edit Summary Don't put anything here Don't put anything here save preview cancel