Finland

Located in Scandinavia in northern Europe, the climate of Finland—with its long, cold, and damp winters—has resulted in many pastimes involving snow or ice. Children from an early age take up skiing, skating, snowboarding, and riding in toboggans. Although people enjoy these on an amateur level, Finland has also produced large numbers of Olympic champions in winter sports. Cross-country and downhill skiing attract many—up to 10,000 people participate in the Finlandia Skiing Marathon. Sword-fighting and fencing have long been popular, and the Royal Academy of Turku has had an instructor in swordsmanship from at least 1640. One local game, Mölkky, has become the origin of the Cornish game Seattles, a version of Skittles in which all the pins are numbered.

In the summer, many young people enjoy hiking or cycling and, because of the Viking heritage shared by many, rowing. In some places the Viking sport of walking along extended oars of a boat is enjoyed. Whitewater rafting has become a popular pastime for young people in search of adventure and danger. There are also a wide range of activities including archery and pesäpallo, a type of Finnish baseball that is played by many adolescents [Page 231]in the summer. Because of the climate, many pastimes have to be pursued indoors. As well as indoor skating rinks and skiing, there are also many bowling alleys, amusement arcades, and indoor heated swimming pools and saunas.

Because of the Russian and German influences in the country, Chess has a large following, with outdoor Chess sets featured in Hesperian Park, Helsinki. Prominent Finnish Chess players include Eero Book (1910–90), Carl Friedrich Andreyevich von Jaenisch (1813–72), Osma Kaila (1916–91), Kaarle Ojanen (b.1918), Anatol Tschepurnoff (1871–1942), and Heikki Markku Julius Westerinen (b. 1944). Wargaming has long been popular, with Finland having been part of the Swedish Empire, and then the Russian Empire until 1918 when it gained its independence. As a result, much of the Wargaming tended to focus on the various wars involving Russia, Finland, and Sweden, as well as more contemporary wars such as the Russo-Finnish War of 1939–40. Board games such as Monopoly proved popular in Finland—a Finnish version was released with the famous streets of Helsinki featured. Tove Jansson, probably the most famous Finnish writer, developed the lovable Moomin-troll family, and many young children have toys based on characters from the books.

Many people also play card games, and large numbers of children learn musical instruments at school, although many do not continue with music in adulthood. A great pastime in the country is painting eggs, which is usually done before Easter. Because of the belief that witches might visit people over the Easter weekend, many people lit bonfires to frighten then, although now many schoolgirls use it as an opportunity to dress up as witches. In midsummer, there is a large festival when a giant pole is erected in towns that generally have a Swedish-speaking population, and people dance around them celebrating the good weather. The Linnanmäki Amusement Park in Helsinki was very popular during the 1950s and 1960s, and the Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs, the governing body for bowling, is based in Helsinki. However, increased access to computer games has dramatically changed the nature of play in Finland in recent years.

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