Raili Washburn’s Finnish Christmas
by Raili Washburn
Submitted by Katrina Mackey
Illustrations by Kent Washburn
Hauskaa Joulua is a Merry Christmas greeting in Finnish. As we are getting ready for the holidays this year, memories from the childhood Christmases come up and some Finnish Christmas customs are adopted to our family celebration.
Christmas Eve is the most important day in the family. The tree was brought in at noon and decorated and we always had real candles on the branches. Looking back now, it must have been some fire hazard, but I don’t ever recall having heard of lots of houses burning at Christmas time-only candles.
Decorations were always homemade, using straw, paper,
apples, and special foil covered hard candies. Straw is used much today
to make mobiles, stars, and wreaths. Every house had Olkipukki (straw
goat) on the table and my mother remembers times when a clean bale
of straw was brought into the family room and spread on the floor on
Christmas Eve-bedding to remember how our Lord spent his first night
in the world.
Sauna bath was always part of the Christmas Eve ritual. The intense heat in sauna and the good smell of birch tree branches and leaves (gathered and dried in July) cleansed and relaxed our body and mind and took away daily worries.
Christmas Eve dinner was always a big one and included very traditional wholesome country foods like these: 1. Riisipuuro- rice porridge (rice cooked thick in milk with one almond added for good luck), 2. Rosolli-mixed vegetable salad with herring, 3. Joulukinkku - slightly salted pork roast, served cold, 4. Several casseroles like: Porkkanalaatikko-carrot and rice; Lanttulaatikko - rutabaga, 5. Karjalan Paisti - Karelian meat stew. Several kinds of whole grain breads and rye-rice pies were always served with the dinner. For dessert there was berry pudding made from lingonberries or fancier fruit soups made from imported foreign fruits like plums, apricots, prunes, and raisins.
Christmas Eve in my hometown was like Memorial Day in America in some ways. After dinner about 5-6 P.M., families went to the snow covered cemeteries and lit candles at the graves of the dear ones who were not celebrating Christmas with the relatives anymore. All kinds of beautiful snow and ice lanterns were glistening against the dark trees and making the cemetery into a bright unbelievable sea of light and life.
Upon returning from the cemetery, children waited impatiently the coming of Joulupukki-Santa Claus-and he actually came into the house and through the door with jingle bells. He talked to the children and scolded them if they hadn’t been obedient before giving out any presents.
Christmas Day was a very strict and quiet family day. Children played games and read books - no visiting was allowed. I remember getting my first skates one year and not being allowed to go out to the iced river to try them on Christmas Day.
Church service was at a very early hour on that day, like 6 or 6:30 A.M., and anybody who could get hold of a horse would come on a sleigh. We had a small farm, but only once we owned a horse. My grandfather was shining the sleigh bells and getting ready for that big important morning a couple of weeks before Christmas. My brothers and I were so excited that we could go to church with our own horse and sleigh. We did go-but on a buggy because we had a big thaw. It rained all night and our Christmas snow was totally gone.