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by Marja-Leena

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). (Thanks to Irma in Finland for sending me this link!)

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.

Happy Christmas, Hauskaa Joulua, Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeux No&#235l, or Happy Holidays! Thank you, dear readers, for making this year’s blog adventure such a great pleasure for me by sharing your thoughts with me.

xmas04.jpg

*Virtual Finland no longer exists but has been replaced with This is Finland. This link fortunately takes you to the new Christmas pages.

** Expired link removed.

December 17, 2004 in Books, Culture, Music by Marja-Leena 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Rare Sami Music CD

This is very interesting – ” Sámi singer releases CD in waning language”- from Helsingin Sanomat. Here are some excerpts, but do read the whole fascinating article.

Palgah, a new CD by Inari Sámi singer Aune Kuuva, contains what is perhaps the rarest music in the world. She has composed the songs and written the lyrics in the language of the Inari Sámi people in the eastern part of Finnish Lapland. It is apparently the only recording in a language that is teetering on the brink of extinction. The musical traditions of the Sámi (Lapp) people in the Inari region are also in danger of disappearing.

Aune is an Inari Sámi, one of the fewer than 1,000 who are left. They are a minority among the Sámi minority, and they live along the shores of Lake Inari and in Nellim, near the Russian border. With local people leaving their villages and getting dispersed around the world, the number of people speaking the Inari variant of the Sámi language has declined to about 300.

Kuuva’s CD does not have any of the traditional Sámi “joiks”. “We are not joik people”. Kuuva says that the Inari Sámi are natural singers and storytellers. The melody is important for them. The recording was sponsored, and it is being sold by the Association for the Inari Sámi language.

I emailed Helsingin Sanomat and they have provided me with the email address of a contact person, from whom one can order the CD. Email me if you are interested.

More about the Sámi in this earlier post, in Wikipedia, and about”joiks”.

Update Oct.30.04: Just came across this interesting page on the Sami of Norway, via Torill Mortensen

Update Dec.27.04: I ordered this CD for ourselves as a Christmas gift and I’m pleased to write that we enjoy it very much!

October 28, 2004 in Ethnicity, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Music by Marja-Leena Comments Off on Rare Sami Music CD

by Marja-Leena

CBC’s opening night

I’ve been spending far too much time working at the computer with PhotoShop, developing images for a series of prints combining inkjet and collagraph prints in layers. I’ve been in the printmaking studio printing proofs, and back to the “drawing board”, aka my Mac. Tonight I was too tired to even blog, so decided on some rare TV watching.

I was lucky that CBC’s Opening Night was on, for this season’s premiere. Featured was I, Claudia – “Based on the hit Tarragon Theatre play by Kristen Thomson, this extraordinary one-woman acting tour-de-force explores the pre-teen world of Claudia, as she struggles with the divorce of her parents, her father’s remarriage and puberty.” As it happens, Chandrasutra has written a great review of this unique play.

The second half was Vienna, City of My Dreams – “The irrepressible Canadian tenor Michael Schade has been the toast of Vienna since his debut there in 1992. For this Viennese tribute he is joined by his wife, mezzo-soprano Norine Burgess, in a program of operetta favourites.” This lovely romantic music lifted my spirits and energy so much that I was able to do a bit more work in preparation for some more proofing in the studio tomorrow and finish with a quick blog. Good night!

October 21, 2004 in Being an Artist, Culture, Music by Marja-Leena Comments Off on CBC’s opening night

by Marja-Leena

Lord of the Rings musical

Helsingin Sanomat* has a story that really tickles my Finnish funnybone as it makes the intriguing connection between Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Finland.

The makers of London’s West End musical Lord of the Rings (Flash webpage) have gone to Finland for inspiration. Finnish culture is going to be present in the musical on several levels, particularly the music of folk group Värttinä, and inspiration even from old Finnish jewelry and handicrafts.

But the producers had a surprise in store – Tolkien had got here first, by at least half a century. ‘It was not until we had decided to invite Värttinä into the project that we discovered that the Finnish language had been a source of inspiration for Tolkien himself. It felt then as though we had instinctively come to the right place’, says co-producer Kevin Wallace enthusiastically. Read about this connection in an earlier post.

Don’t miss the many links at the bottom of the HS article, about the production and about some Finnish cultural sites.

And, here’s a fun post about Tolkien’s Elvish language.

* Updated 27.08.2015 – expired links removed

October 3, 2004 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Folk Legends & Myths, Music by Marja-Leena Comments Off on Lord of the Rings musical

by Marja-Leena

Music in Finland

As a lover of opera and all things Finnish, I’m surprised and thrilled by today’s post on ionarts “Music in Finland”. Charles Downey writes about how active opera is in Finland today as well as its history: “It took the Finns a while to create their own national opera”, but now “Finland is probably the leading country for the production of new operas”.

I’m pleased also at the mention of Karita Mattila, a wonderful singer and actress, whom we were very fortunate to see in concert here in Vancouver about a year ago.

Charles Downey teaches music and art history in Washington, DC and his blog reflects his excellent knowledge and passionate interest in these subjects. My own music knowledge is spotty so there is a wealth of information here that I will be poring over.

Virtual Finland**, by the way, is an excellent site on everything about Finland, that I go back to frequently and have linked to before in certain posts.

PS. Note my comment on the Finnish language as being Finno-Ugrian not Magyar. See these pages in Virtual Finland**

** Virtual Finland sadly no longer exists and links have been removed.

August 20, 2004 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Music by Marja-Leena 2 Comments »

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