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by Marja-Leena

a labyrinth

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I have often wished to visit some of the labyrinths found in different parts of the world.

Strangely, the very first labyrinth I ever did walk on was just a two days ago right here in the Vancouver area. One early morning we went looking for a new painted labyrinth that we read about in a newspaper. Painted on a parking lot of a church, off a rather busy road, my first impression was of a little disappointment. But as I slowly walked around the twists and turns, I did feel my mood become meditative.

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With its rose in the centre, It appears to be similar to some that are painted inside modern churches. Yet, according to the brochure, available nearby, this one is “a replica of the 11-circuit labyrinth of Chartres Cahtedral in France. This pattern, once central ot cathredral culture, was inlaid in the stone floor in 1201.” Interesting…

But I still feel drawn to the ancient stone labyrinths, just like I’m drawn to ancient cave art.

August 2, 2007 in Being an Artist, Canada and BC, Culture, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena 18 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

a wedding

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A trip and a wedding took us away this past weekend, in more ways than one. The beauty of the drive over mountains and valleys to a lovely lakeside town made us grateful, once again, that we live in such a magestic part of this country. We were very excited to attend the wedding of my handsome young nephew, my brother’s second son, to a lovely young girl, both still college students.

What is that saying about weddings and funerals and seeing some family only at times like this, at the ritual markers in the passage of time from birth to death? It was exciting to see so many extended family members after too many years, noting how many of us have become the elders and how many of the young ones are now in early adulthood. The joy of reconnecting with family left a glow that still persists and is kept warm as we sort over the hundreds of photos, share stories and decide which to email to those loved ones who could not be there. Tired from the trip still, I continue to linger over these newly created memories and send silent wishes for a happy life to the newlyweds.

June 26, 2007 in Canada and BC, Culture by Marja-Leena Comments Off on a wedding

by Marja-Leena

solstice memories

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(Denmark 1983)
midsummer dreams
white nights in Nordic lands
(who sleeps in the summer?)
solstice celebrations
bonfires on beaches
three nights in three countries
summer holidays, cottages
sauna and skinny dips in silky lakes
Hauskaa Juhannusta!
Happy Solstice!

June 21, 2007 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

remembering Dad

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It’s Father’s Day here in Canada and USA. I awoke very early and started thinking of my father, who passed away 15 years ago. I pulled out my parents’ worn old family album that they carried with them as we emigrated to Canada. This photo of my courageous and handsome father was possibly taken just before that life-changing event (or was it on his wedding day?). We miss you, Isä and Ukki.

We also miss Papa and Opa, who emigrated to Canada around the same time, with his family (including the little boy who was to become my husband) following a year later.

A newer tradition for us is to revisit a wonderful poem card written and designed by two of our daughters to their Dad three years ago. Long-time readers may remember it.

Time to make some coffee for the father of our children. Happy Father’s Day to all Dads everywhere!

June 17, 2007 in Culture, Home by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

a queen’s birthday

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She reigned for 63 years, seven months and two days — the longest reign ever.
She was five feet tall and monarch to one-quarter of the world’s population.
She was 81 when she died.
Her own sons lifted her into her coffin, as she had requested.
She was dressed in a white dress and her wedding veil.
She was laid to rest next to Albert.
Her birthday is not a holiday in England. It is here. (emphasis mine)
I wonder, would she be amused?
More

(It amuses me when the English prefer to forget that many of their monarchy are German.)

So today is a holiday Monday in Canada, the first long weekend of the summer season, the weekend of opening up summer cottages for many. Here in Vancouver we had a glorious sunny week, but the weekend weather caved into a rainy one. My week’s heavy gardening work resulted in severe back pain, so the wet weather actually allowed me to rest without temptation or guilt and I feel much better now. Happy Victoria Day!

May 21, 2007 in Culture, Current Events by Marja-Leena 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

May Eve and Day

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This April 30th I’m once again reminded by Helsingin Sanomat that today and tomorrow are Vappu or May Eve and May Day, “one of Finland’s most boisterous (and liquid) annual festivals”. May Day in Finland is a national holiday, a kind of Finnish “Mardi Gras meets the Rite of Spring”, with some historical political overtones and a strong youth and student flavouring. And here’s this droll offering: For those who do not know what this is all about and have not read this article at least six times already (3.5.2000).

Having written about this popular Scandinavian holiday, with its variants elsewhere, for the past three years, I’ve run out of anything new to say, a symptom peculiar to bloggers of a certain vintage, it seems. Anyway, my post of last year may interest newer readers with its links, including to some traditional Vappu treats. I’m struck by the photos of lilacs and lily of the valley from my garden last year. This year’s colder winter and spring means they are only just in bud. Not to complain, it sometimes snows on May Day in Finland!

To all my dear readers, I heartily wish a Happy May Day, Hauskaa Vappua, Happy Walpurgisnacht, Bonne Fête du Muguet! Pick a few newly greened birch branches as an offering to Spring.

April 30, 2007 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Folk Legends & Myths by Marja-Leena 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

diversions

I’ve recently come across some great links on a couple of interesting subjects – the first an important environmental story and the second a fascinating linguistic and ethnological one.

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1. At Biodynamic Farming and Gardening I found out about a film called How to Save the World – One Man, One Cow, One Planet. View the short video excerpt about how India’s marginal farmers are saving their poisoned land by reviving biodynamics, an arcane form of agriculture, based on the teachings of an elderly New Zealander many are calling the new Gandhi.

2. Brazil’s Pirahã Tribe – Living without Numbers or Time (via mirabilis):

‘The Pirahã people have no history, no descriptive words and no subordinate clauses. That makes their language one of the strangest in the world — and also one of the most hotly debated by linguists.’

‘Living in the now also fits with the fact that the Pirahã don’t appear to have a creation myth explaining existence. When asked, they simply reply: “Everything is the same, things always are.” The mothers also don’t tell their children fairy tales — actually nobody tells any kind of stories. No one paints and there is no art.’

April 10, 2007 in Culture, Current Events, Environment, Ethnicity, Linguistics by Marja-Leena 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Kalevala and Vietnam

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I know that the Finnish national epic the Kalevala is read around the world, translated as it is into 61 languages. So I’ve been quite intrigued to read a fascinating story about two Vietnamese women and their involvement with the Kalevala and how it inspired a project to compile a Vietnamese national epic with help from a Finnish foundation. Here are some excerpts:

The home of artist Dang Thu Huong in Hanoi is an austere one-room apartment with nothing unnecessary in it. The eye rapidly focuses on paintings leaning against a wall. They depict Finnish barns and national costumes. Huong has made illustrations for the Kanteletar, the companion work to the national epic poem, the Kalevala, which has been translated into Vietnamese by Bui Viet Hoa. The next effort of the women is to compile and illustrate Vietnam’s first national epic by the end of next year. The two are getting support from the Juminkeko Foundation, which specialises in the Kalevala. It has received development cooperation funding for the project from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Lönnrot wrote the Kalevala based on folk poetry from the oral tradition that he compiled during travels in Russian Karelia in the 19th century. Hoa translated the epic into Vietnamese in 1994. [Bui Viet Hoa ] has been referred to as “Vietnam’s Elias Lönnrot”. Lönnrot wrote the Kalevala based on folk poetry from the oral tradition that he compiled during travels in Russian Karelia in the 19th century. Hoa translated the epic into Vietnamese in 1994.

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups with dozens of oral miniature epics. Hoa uses them as a basis for her own work, which is to unite the nation. The most challenging job is to compile a unified story out of very many different epics. Hoa solves the problem by dividing the book into two parts – the world of myths, and the world of heroes. Like the Kalevala, the Vietnamese myths describe the origin of the world. In both epics, everything begins with a bird’s egg. In Hoa’s book, there is a separate story about how water-buffalo and rice came into being.

Like Lönnrot, Hoa has travelled among the people to collect her stories. Accompanying her was the third worker in the project, Hoa’s husband, linguistic researcher Vo Xuan Que. The two have gone into Vietnamese villages and asked men and women of different ages to sing for them.

(Photo from Juminkeko archives)
Related links:
the Kalevala
Epics of the world
Juminkeko Foundation
about the word “Juminkeko”

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UPDATE March 14th: Bill’s comment below has prompted me to do another search for an online English translation of the Kalevala. The Finnish Literature Society did have a full translation on their site three years ago when I’d first mentioned the Kalevala on this blog, but now offers only the original Finnish, and a synopsis in English.

Checking out Bill’s leads, I see that Wikipedia has a very good page on the Kalevala, including a short synopsis as well, and links to translations. The translations are all by John Martin Crawford and I am not impressed with this version.

However, there are many translations in print. After some research last year, I found and bought this translation by Eino Friberg. It is excellent, capturing the wonderful oral quality of the Finnish original. I recommend it highly to any interested readers.

On a side note, the Wikipedia entry excites me because of the illustrations of some of the famous paintings based on the Kalevala by my favourite Finnish artist of the late 19th-early 20th century Akseli Gallen-Kallela. But there’s another subject for a very long blog post one day!

March 12, 2007 in Books, Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Folk Legends & Myths by Marja-Leena 14 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

The Danish Poet

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Torill Kove, a Norwegian-Canadian animator with Canada’s NFB (National Film Board) won an Oscar this year for Best Animated Short Film. Her film, The Danish Poet, is a “charming 15-minute meditation on life’s peculiar coincidences, based loosely on a tale her father told her about how he met the woman who would become his wife and her mother. It is narrated by Liv Ullmann, the legendary Norwegian-born actress and director and Ingmar Bergman muse.” – from the Montreal Gazette.

Now I’ve just discovered that the film can be viewed in its entirety on the NFB website! You can also read more about this Canada-Norway Co-production, view an interview of Torill, short clips of the film and order a copy on its own website. I hope you enjoy this delightful animation as much as I did!

UPDATE Feb.28th, 7 p.m.: Some readers may be interested to know that Art Daily has short excerpts of the winners at the Academy Awards, including The Danish Poet.

UPDATE March 5th: It’s come to my attention that the full-length feature is no longer available on this site. It seems that it was up for the duration of the contest, which has ended. I think I struck it lucky finding it just before. Time to either buy it or rent it!

UPDATE Dec. 2013: It is available to subscribers or to buy the DVD.

UPDATE March 2014: Quite by accident I discovered it may be viewed for free at Open Culture.

February 27, 2007 in Culture, Films, Other artists by Marja-Leena 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

friendship day

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Hauskaa Ystävänpäivää and Happy Friendship Day**, everyone!

Since learning about this very inclusive celebration, I like it far more than our over-commercialized and wasteful Valentine’s Day, as long as we keep it simple. I did make this heart for you, dear readers, by recycling and cutting up a proof of a collagraph print, just like the number 3 made a little while ago.

It is amazing how many people and even countries now loathe and try to banish Valentine’s Day. Yet there are those who are eager to go to Love, a town in Saskatchewan on this day of the year.

And here’s a story of another kind of love, about a diplomat who fell in love with the Finnish language.

** This link no longer exists. Please go to Wikipedia’s entry on Valentine’s Day and scroll down to Europe and Finland.

February 14, 2007 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena 21 Comments »

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