Christmas
Description:
Already in October, St. Brigid’s fairs open in all major cities, where they begin to sell Christmas decorations and gifts. There is no rush in preparation for the celebration - all this is very serious for the residents of Suomi. And so slowly and slowly the Finns come to the most important of the days - St. Andrew's Day (November 30), when "Antti invites Christmas."
On the Senate Square in Helsinki put a huge spruce. For a whole month, children can take part in the process of decorating it - they are given the lower branches of the giant beauty and conduct special excursions, during which they are given the right to attach something to their liking to the Christmas tree. In each city choose "Christmas street" - for a particularly luxurious illumination. In Helsinki for almost fifty years this street remains Alexandrinkatz.
A lot of lights, illuminations, candles, stars, fabulous meteors - all this creates an atmosphere of a fabulous holiday. Christmas is called the “week of light” – thousands of light bulbs and candles are lit in all cities and villages, Christmas tree garlands decorate streets, buildings, apartments; preparation begins in mid-November. Exactly two weeks before Christmas, classes in schools and universities stop, most companies let employees go on vacation.
Finns prefer to celebrate the Great Night at home, in a close family circle, leaving parties of friendly companies for New Year's Eve. The Finnish Santa Claus is cosmopolitan, for him both Catholic and Orthodox Christmas are equally joyful.
The origin of Christmas.
Both Christmas and its name, joulu, came to Finland from Sweden. Probably, the original borrowing was in the form of julila (julila), which means now generally a holiday, but in Karyala it is called the day of all saints, and in Pohyanmaa it is Christmas. Among the church holidays, Christmas proved to be very persistent and important. On Christmas Eve (jouluaatto) worked as on weekdays, but tried to start work early, performed it especially carefully, finished the day early. Already in the afternoon the bath was heated, dinner was served early, many went to bed early so that in the morning it was possible to go to church early.
The Christmas tree appeared in the Finnish village very late. It was borrowed from Western Europe at the beginning of the XIX century; initially it was known only in cities. In rural areas, the decorated Christmas tree first appeared in schools, and in peasant houses became widespread by the end of the last century. The evening meal on Christmas Eve was quite early. She gave food, usually bread and beer, to pets.
It was assumed that on the night of Christmas and the next night, the souls of the dead, patron spirits and evil spirits appeared. For the dead and spirits all night stood on the table food was exhausted at night bath. In order to prevent evil spirits from entering the house and other rooms, a cross was painted on all the doors outside. In modern times, already in the XX century, the custom of going on Christmas Eve to the cemetery and lighting candles at the graves of others at night spread. In ancient times, young people on the night before Christmas usually guessed - by the burning of the ray, by the behavior of animals, by the way the cock brought to the hut pecked grain, believed that it was possible to guess their fate; believed in prophetic dreams on that night, etc.