Culture Archives - Page 16 of 29

by Marja-Leena

Looking back: Jule favourites

Deep in the archives of three years ago is this favourite Christmas season post of mine and reposted here almost fully:

My favourite things about Christmas are the things that appeal to the romantic and the child in me. I love the visual delights of little white lights, red candles, evergreens, snow, red berries, pine cones and red folk embroidery on linens. I love exquisitely illustrated childrens’ books like Jan Brett’s The Wild Christmas Reindeer, something I bought just for myself to enjoy every Christmas.

I love Christmas music, especially when sung by young voices like Heintje (O Tannenbaum), romantic voices from the 40’s and 50’s like Doris Day, Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby (I Dream of a White Christmas), or powerful operatic voices.

Virtual Finland’s Christmas* appeals to the romantic and the child. Visit Santa or “Joulupukki” in his gorgeous clothes, with his elves and reindeer in Lapland (that’s where Santa lives, didn’t you know?). Look at the lovely cards from Christmases past and recipes for traditional Finnish Christmas foods. I also love these little Finnish folk poems* about the little animals in the wintry woods (click on ‘lorupiha’ then each creature, in Finnish only but sounds interesting).

We are busy preparing the house, the decorations, the gifts, and all the favourite foods for our family Christmas of blended traditions. Christmas Eve is our big night, a tradition with both the Finns and the Germans, with a lovely meal, carols around the piano, and then Santa’s visit, so carefully planned to happen out of sight of little children. Oh, such excitement! Happy childhood memories evoked by all the sights, sounds and tastes and watching the shining happy eyes of another generation (a grandchild) make Christmas special for me.

What can I add this year? Two things come to mind. One is another grandchild now 2, who with her 7-year old sister makes up a lively happy pair through whose eyes we can experience the awe and the joy of this season. Otherwise we might be a bit jaded by it all now, hmm?

Secondly, I must mention a beautiful music CD, already quite old, from our modest collection: Vienna Noel with Placido Domingo, Sissel Kyrkjebo and Charles Aznavour. The Norwegian Sissel is absolutely divine and angelic, fitting beautifully with the equally great male singers. My heart soars at every listening!

If I were in Europe, I’d love to go to the traditional Christmas Markets. On one of his business trips many year ago, my husband was in Austria before Christmas. He brought back many lovely handmade tree ornaments that we treasure. I learned that Helsinki has a Christmas Market too. This could be another favourite!

What are your favourite things this time of year, dear readers? I hope you take great pleasure in them as you prepare for the holidays!

UPDATE Dec.23, 2007: Just read this in our weekend newspaper, A land of Christmas: “For hundreds of years, the towns of Germany have celebrated the yuletide season with markets filled with the produce of local artisans…” Exactly what I dream of visiting!

UPDATE Dec.3, 2013: Almost six years later, oh nine for that earlier linked post, I am saddened by the many dead links, some marked * and removed.

December 16, 2007 in Being an Artist, Books, Culture, Home, Music by Marja-Leena 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Looking back: Lucia’s Day

I am finding that one of the downsides of being a blogger for more than two or three years is that I feel that more and more I begin to repeat myself. Yet, readers come and go though there are many long time loyal readers that I treasure. Am I chatting with the new readers, or with the longtime ones? Both, of course. Well, it is my blog and a kind of diary, and it is a special time of year for me when I enjoy rereading my past December posts, dug up out of the ever larger archives.

With today’s slightly tired and jaded eyes, I look back on that first year of blogging and feel again that excitement of discovering new information on the net and the joy of connections with new blog friends. I’m going to link to some of my old favourites on their anniversary dates with the hope that new readers will enjoy them for the first time, and longtime readers will not be too bored. After all, this is the season of holiday traditions and this has become a tradition for me, as is sharing the joys. (However, the nature of this medium being what it is, some older links may be dead.)

Lucia by Swedish painter Carl Larsson, 1908 – from wikipedia

Today is Lucia’s Day, or the Festival of Lights. Two years ago, I wrote in part:

Lucia is “the only saint celebrated by the Lutheran Swedes, Finns, Danes, and Norwegians, in celebrations that retain many pre-Christian elements of a midwinter light festival.” “Her feast day in the West is December 13, by the unreformed Julian calendar the longest night of the year”. Lucia also means light, so this is a festival of lights in the dark northern countries. I find it fascinating how the many religious and pagan traditions meld and transform over time into our modern day celebrations.

Last year’s post includes some interesting links to other bloggers, especially Dave’s unique view of the saint of light.

Happy Santa Lucia Day! Now, back to writing a few more Christmas letters. The overseas ones are finally on their way. I’m enjoying reading the ones arriving daily now.

ADDENDUM 3:50 pm: Lucy of Box Elder has written a wonderful and personally significant Nocturne upon St Lucy’s Day – a highly recommended read!

December 13, 2007 in Being an Artist, Blogging, Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena 11 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

two candles for Finland

In honour of Finland’s 90th Independence Day* (Itsenäisyys Päivä) today, I have lit these two candles in a window, as is the custom there. “Why two candles? Well, one is for home, the other is for country. This silent custom, handed down from generation to generation, could be described as Finland’s greatest popular movement, with a message that everyone can subscribe to.”

For me, personally, the two candles also represent my roots in two countries, Finland and Canada.

This 90th Anniversary year is a special one that has been celebrated all year leading up to December 6th. Though a holiday, it’s traditionally a serious day in Finland, but some lighthearted chuckles can be enjoyed over the symbols for Finnishness that these nine foreigners and naturalized Finns offer.

I also appreciated the historical perspective of Finland written by another Finnish emigrant who lives just south of us, in Seattle.

Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää to Finland and my Finnish readers!

*link has expired and has been removed.

December 6, 2007 in Culture, Current Events, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Happy American Thanksgiving

November 21, 2007 in Culture, Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena 10 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

November/Marraskuu

Ah, the calendar page turns to November. This morning’s too-brief sunshine drew me outdoors. I could not resist taking the camera to capture some of the last of fall’s beauty in our garden.

Curious about the source of the name, I learned that in Latin, ‘novem’ means nine. November was the ninth month in the Roman calendar.

I also learned, to my great surprise, that ‘marraskuu’, the Finnish name for this month, means ‘month of the dead’. But wait, it may not be like Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead as celebrated in Mexico. It’s thought to come from the earth being ‘martaana’ or in a state of death. Yet, coming right after Halloween and on or near All Saints’ Day, a Christian holiday in many countries in Europe, I can’t help wondering if it might be referring to the ancient traditions of honouring one’s ancestors at the same time. Curious, isn’t it?

November 1, 2007 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

frights and feasts

As you are out tonight chasing ghosts and goblins, watch out for what may be underfoot.

Or when the lawn
Is pressed by unseen feet, and ghosts return
Gently at twilight, gently go at dawn,
The sad intangible who grieve and yearn….
– T.S. Eliot

Looking up, Windy Willlow writes:

A howling welcome to all you tree lovers… this is the Halloween edition of The Festival of Trees’. What spooky trees and snippets of poetry to put us into the spirit of Samhain! If you need a little calming after all this, go down to part two and see ‘the breathtaking colors of leaves and fruit in this colorful season.

Fright to feast, have a Happy Halloween.

(Thanks, Amy, for reminding me of Eliot’s words.)

October 31, 2007 in Being an Artist, Culture, Current Events by Marja-Leena 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Sagrada Família in danger

I still remember well my art school days and the many hours of Art History classes, viewing thousands of slides of art and architecture, sometimes sleepily but often excited. The courses were taken by students of art, architecture and interior design. Architecture has always interested me and Antoni Gaudi’s fantastic creations fascinated me. I still have only seen them in pictures.

La Sagrada Família, a basilica in Barcelona, Spain is one of those incredible projects. The building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Still unfinished after 40 years, it is now in danger of being destroyed by the construction of a tunnel for a high speed train going underneath!

I find it incredibly shocking and disheartening to hear about developers destroying art works. I think of the vast area of incredible aborigine rock art of the Burrup peninsula in Australia currently threatened by gas developers as another example.

There’s a campaign to stop the construction and even a YouTube film of what the potential disaster may look like.

Thanks to Viides Rooli (in Finnish) for the link.

October 31, 2007 in Culture, History, Other artists by Marja-Leena 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

witchy trees

Come, my dearies, for a tour of my woods

See, here is the witches’ castle

Meet Witch Hazel

and Witch Rowana

Here’s Raven

There’s our resident treehugger witch.

If you’d like to join in the Samhain edition of the Festival of Trees being hosted at Windy Willow, please email your links by midnight October 26th to silviasalix (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk, with “Festival of the Trees” in the subject line.

(PS – Apologies for the artistic liberty with the witches’ names. They are not the names of the trees illustrated.)

October 25, 2007 in Being an Artist, Blogging, Culture by Marja-Leena 25 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

dying languages

Image credit: Enduring Voices Project

Finnish was my first language. I was five years old when my family emigrated to Canada. Arriving in Winnipeg, I was promptly placed in school, not knowing a word of English. Now that was language immersion! I don’t remember much of those early scary days. I was already reading Finnish and we continued to speak Finnish at home. I learned English quickly enough as children do, but my parents’ English was never perfect. LIke many working class immigrants, they were too busy working hard to survive to take more than a couple of basic language classes. Some immigrant parents, wishing to learn English through their children, did not allow their native languages to be spoken so some of my friends lost most of their mother tongue. I’m sure this was typical of many immigrant experiences in North America and other parts. These days, I’m sad that my Finnish is not a strong as English from lack of everyday practice since my parents are no longer with us.

Perhaps because of that, I’ve developed strong feelings about language being part of a person’s identity and connection with his or her roots and culture. So whenever I read about how many languages are dying around the world, I feel sorrow at the world’s loss of so many cultures.

Yesterday’s Vancouver Sun has one such story, B.C.’s native languages rapidly dying: linguists

Indigenous languages are dying off at an alarming rate in British Columbia, prompting linguists to include the province on a list of the five worst global “hot spots” for language extinction. Most fluent aboriginal speakers are aged 60 or older, and their languages will be lost forever when the last speaker dies, said David Harrison, co-director of the Enduring Voices project, which seeks to document and revitalize languages slipping towards oblivion.

and…

Much of the blame for language loss can be tied to residential schools, UBC linguistics Prof. Suzanne Gessner said. For decades, children were taken away from their families during the school year and educated in English. A compensation package designed to address the wrongs of residential schools did nothing to revitalize languages, she said — and last November, the federal government cut $160 million in funding for aboriginal languages.

Further links:
Enduring Voices Project
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
Why preserve languages? – my post of spring 2004

September 20, 2007 in Culture, Ethnicity, History, Linguistics by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

summer’s end

In these last days of August, I’m feeling lazy and lingering, almost as if I’m holding on to summer a little bit longer. Not so much the heat of summer, for I’m not fond of that, but the light, I think. And the beauty of the garden. I notice how the sun rises later and farther to the south. As it makes its way to the west a bit lower in the sky each day, I notice that it doesn’t shine in through the window next to me here quite as much in the late afternoon, shaded now by the trees. More and more of the garden remains in shade cast by the surrounding tall trees. The mornings are deliciously cool and moist with dew, the afternoons still hot. This summer was not as dry as some years so there aren’t too many yellow leaves on the ground yet.

Summer isn’t really over yet, but it seems to be a new season after the Labour Day long weekend coming up, with all the children going back to school after that. It’s a time of reflection for me, of remembering childhood years of school, then university, then teaching and finally as a parent sending my children off to new adventures every September. I remember my own anticipation tinged with a little fear on those first days of school, skipping in new shoes through crisp leaves in the gorgeous Indian summer days in Winnipeg, the very best time of the year there, I thought. Ah, nostalgia. I thought that was something older people do more, but even Erika has been nostalgic.

Back to the present, there’s something exciting to look forward to early Saturday morning on the first day of September, If you live along the west coast of North and South America. If you happen to be awake at 4:30 am, or decide to set your alarm, look for the Aurigid meteor shower, one that I’d not heard about before, but learned about from Feathers of Hope. I hope it’s going to be clear!

Another thing I’m looking forward to with September is the return to the printmaking studio and seeing old friends there, and meeting new, and getting back to printing. I’m also participating in a group show coming up soon, but that will be the subject of another post.

Happy (long) weekend, dear readers. Welcome to September.

PS. September 1st:
I almost forgot. Tomorrow is International Rock-Flipping Day! Check it out and do heed the warnings. You all know I’m crazy about rocks, so tomorrow I shall investigate what lives under some of them.

August 30, 2007 in Being an Artist, Culture by Marja-Leena 10 Comments »

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Looking back: Jule favourites

Looking back: Lucia’s Day

two candles for Finland

Happy American Thanksgiving

November/Marraskuu

frights and feasts

Sagrada Família in danger

witchy trees

dying languages

summer’s end

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