Kymijoen School, Kymentaka, FINLAND      

Project coordinators: Arja Suikkanen and Taina Mikkola

Participating pupils: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th grades

EASTER IN FINLAND

Both Lutheran and Orthodox people go to the church during the Easter time. Many people also go to their cottages and enjoy the beginning of spring.

 

The traditional Finnish dish is "mämmi" (brown porridge made of rye malt and water). In the old times it was made into birch-bark baskets. Nowadays it is made in board baskets. Boiled eggs belong to the Finnish Easter table, too.

The Finnish Orthodox people have inherited their Easter customs from Russia.

Pasha, the most famous dish is made in wooden moulds. It is made of sour milk (kvark), cream, butter, sugar, vanilla and orange marmalade. There are the letters XB and a cross on the pasha. XB means "Christ is risen".

The Easter menu consists of: roast mutton, mint sauce, boiled eggs, sweet bread, mammi, pasha and coffee.

"Virpominen" is an old Karelian custom on Palm Sunday. It means tapping with willow twigs blessed in church on Saturday. Children go to their relatives and godparents and wish them good luck and health for the next year. We put the most beautiful twigs behind our icons.

 

Here are some of our Easter decorations: Easter wreaths, painted eggs, bunnies, hens and roosters, witches with cats, "Virpo" twigs, daffodils, tulips etc.

During the Easter time the Finnish children enjoy making decorations.


 

The Finnish people play with the Easter eggs by knocking them together. The winner gets all the broken eggs.

 

Parents often hide chocolate eggs in the gardens. Their children will get a drawn map for searching. They can keep all the eggs they find.


                                                                                                              

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