More than 110 years ago in eastern Finland, Ilma Lindgren fought for her right to pick lingonberries on land she did not own. Her court case provided a legal precedent, helping ensure that everyone may enjoy nature, regardless of who owns the terrain. The post How “every person’s right” in Finland evolved over more than a century appeared first on thisisFINLAND ..read more

When Ilkka Villi arrives at the office in the morning, he promptly suits up in a full-body spandex outfit and gets to work pretending to be an action hero. The post Becoming Alan Wake: The Finnish face of a world-famous video game appeared first on thisisFINLAND ..read more

With the increasing popularity and impact of video games on today’s cultural landscape comes the need to study and analyse them, too. The post Finnish university project seeks to understand video game culture appeared first on thisisFINLAND ..read more

Small-town magic Photo: Outi Törmälä Futsal star Neide Oliveira moved from São Paulo, Brazil to Imatra, Finland to make the most of her sport with like-minded people. “I am a shy person but I’m open to the world. I like to experience different cultures and meet new people. Futsal is my passion. I share tips and thoughts about the sport on social media and have over half a million followers. In 2022, the chairperson of River Vuoksi Futsal Club contacted me and invited me to Imatra, southeastern Finland to play and work for the team. I knew that the Finns were rated the happiest nation, but I ..read more

One summer morning a few years ago, Tuija Kilpeläinen woke up early, slipped outside with a cup of tea, petted several sheep, went for a swim and then did her yoga routine on the dock. If that sounds pastoral and idyllic, indeed it was. However, Kilpeläinen does not live on a farm. She and her family were on a Shepherd for a Week holiday in Isojärvi National Park in central Finland. Metsähallitus, the state-owned enterprise that manages Finland’s national parks, has offered such holidays since 2008. The season runs from May to September. Some of the locations are quite unique. You can spend a ..read more

In southern Finland, roughly 35 kilometres (20 miles) north of Helsinki, lies Lake Tuusula, one of the country’s approximately 188,000 lakes. Its mirror-like expanse reflects the changing seasonal hues of the Finnish sky. It is fringed by rugged pine forests. Its surface area of six square kilometres (2.3 square miles) creates an atmosphere of timeless tranquillity. While it is strikingly beautiful, the reasons for its significance might not be immediately apparent. Lake Tuusula’s surroundings are extraordinarily steeped in Finnish art and culture. Cultural icons Composer Jean Sibelius and hi ..read more

NASA’s Artemis programme intends to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972. NASA has recruited help from around the world for this huge project. Organisations such as the European Space Agency and private companies are involved. Nokia of America Corporation, a subsidiary of the Finnish company Nokia, was selected in 2020 to join the NASA Tipping Point programme, which develops technologies for use in space. Nokia’s idea is to test 4G/LTE communications equipment on the lunar surface. The mission is called IM-2 (IM stands for Intuitive Machines). Building a lunar communications s ..read more

What displays a bright, instantaneous light that makes pedestrians and cyclists visible to motorists in the dark, yet requires no batteries or charger? This describes the pedestrian safety reflector, invented by Arvi Lehti in Pertteli, southwestern Finland in 1963. Reflectors have long been ubiquitous in Finland, across the other Nordic countries, and beyond. People attach them to dangle from a jacket sleeve or hem or from a backpack. It’s impossible to know how many tens of thousands of lives pedestrian reflectors have saved over the decades, how many collisions have been avoided. According t ..read more

Any student of the Finnish language will be familiar with the challenge of succinctly translating certain vocabulary into English. Sisu is a case in point. It has achieved fame as the word Finns allot to their own trait of tenacious, persistent determination in the face of challenges ranging from the trivial to the life-threatening. You can’t express that adequately using only one English word. Sivistys is another characteristic, or set of characteristics, that evades satisfactory monolexical translation. The concept is so broad that its promoters chose not to attempt to translate it in a sing ..read more

In autumn 1908, tempers flared in Helsinki as an artistic controversy – you might even call it a scandal – arose about a new fountain designed by Ville Vallgren (1855–1940). His elaborate, five-metre-high sculptural fountain featured a Junoesque female nude, surrounded by water-spouting sea lions and fish and a wide circular pool. The Finnish sculptor had built a bustling career in Paris, where he won a Grand Prix at the 1900 World Exposition. However, he was now being accused of foisting indecent foreign art onto the Finnish public. Focal point for festivities Hooray! Every April 30, student ..read more