Pääsiäinen (Easter)

When it came to Easter my host mum told me that their family wasn't very religious and in Australia this would mean that we spend the weekend eating too many chocolate eggs. And while people in Finland also over-indulge on the eggs for Easter they have a few interesting old traditions.

Mämmi (Easter cuisine which looks like s***) is made from mouldy rye and dark molasses and has roughly the same colour, consistency and smell of human excrement. It has been eaten since about the 13th century and is supposed to be the complete opposite of the Jewish sour-dough bread. With a healthy dose of cream and sugar it tastes quite nice but it is still difficult to get over its appearance.

Pääsiäiskokkoja (massive Easter bonfires) were traditionally burned to ward off evil spirits and witches which may come during this time. This tradition comes from the Pohjanmaa region of Finland and these fires are most common there. So on Saturday night we went into Helsinki to visit the one there. It was absolutely huge and within about 10 meters of it was almost to hot to stand.

Virpojat (kids that dress up and wave sticks at you, demanding candy) are children which dress up like witches and evil spirits and then come to your door and wave decorated sticks at you while s´chanting a spell, which usually goes something like this:
"Virvon varvon
tuoreks terveks
tulevaks vuodeks,
vitsa sulle,
palkka mulle."
This is basically wishing you good health and good luck and then demanding candy in repayment for their hard work.
So we woke up on sunday morning to knocks on the door and soon after opening it my host mum, seija realised that we had no candy and had to turn the dissapointed children away. But after a quick trip to the shops we had candy to give to the young'ns when the came.