Tradition
Christmas Eve and Midsummer Eve might very well be the single most important holidays during the entire year for Finns. Surprisingly they are not officially called holidays and are not so marked in calendars, but for most people, are not working days, and in practice they differ from official holidays only in that most shops are open on those days from early morning till noon. They hold this de facto status partly due to some statements in legislation but also because most employment contracts provides for these days as full holidays. A number of the less important main holidays are also preceded by de facto half days, meaning that in some (but not all) offices working hours are then shorter than normally. These are Maundy Thursday, the day before May Day and New Year's Eve.
Already before the 5 days working week was generally adopted in Finland in the late 1960s, working hours in most cases were shorter on Saturdays (4...5 h) than on other weekdays (8 h), but they were equally shorter also on all eves of public holidays, for example on the eve of Epiphany, the eve of All Saints' Day, and even including Christmas Eve and Midsummer Eve. But when Saturdays ceased to be working days, new contracts removed these shortenings from other holiday eves, except from Midsummer and Christmas Eve which also became de facto holidays.
The Finnish calendar also provides for special flag days. A day's status as a flag day has no formal link with an eventual status as an official or as a de facto holiday. However, May Day, Midsummer Day and Indepence Day have both the status of a flag day and a public holiday.
Finland has an official National Day, December 6. Some minor observances are also denoted in the Finnish calendar, though they have not been judged worthy of either holiday or flag day status.
| Date | English Name | Local Name – Finnish | Local Name – Swedish | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | New Year's Day | Uudenvuodenpäivä | Nyårsdagen | |
| 6 January | Epiphany | Loppiainen | Trettondedagen | |
| Moveable Friday | Good Friday | Pitkäperjantai | Långfredagen | The Friday before Easter Sunday |
| Moveable Sunday | Easter Sunday | Pääsiäispäivä | Påskdagen | |
| Moveable Monday | Easter Monday | 2. pääsiäispäivä | Andra påskdagen | The day after Easter Sunday |
| 1 May | May Day | Vappu | Valborgsmässoafton | See Walpurgis Night |
| Moveable Thursday | Ascension Day | Helatorstai | Kristi himmelfärds dag | 39 days after Easter Sunday |
| Moveable Sunday | Pentecost | Helluntaipäivä | Pingst | 49 days after Easter Sunday |
| Friday between 19 June and 25 June | Midsummer Eve | Juhannusaatto | Midsommarafton | Non official - Non-working day in the annual holiday act law 162/2005 |
| Saturday between 20 June and 26 June | Midsummer Day | Juhannuspäivä | Midsommardagen | Moved from 24 June |
| Saturday between 31 October and 6 November | All Saints' Day | Pyhäinpäivä | Alla helgons dag | Moved from 1 November |
| 6 December | Independence Day | Itsenäisyyspäivä | Självständighetsdagen | |
| 24 December | Christmas Eve | Jouluaatto | Julafton | Non official - Non-working day in the annual holiday act law 162/2005 |
| 25 December | Christmas Day | Joulupäivä | Juldagen | |
| 26 December | St Stephen's Day | 2. joulupäivä or tapaninpäivä | Andra juldagen | |
| All Sundays | Sunnuntai | Söndag | Official holidays - names follow the Liturgical year |
- Flag days in Finland
- Namesdays in Finland
- Tourism in Finland
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Read more about this topic: Public Holidays In Finland
Famous quotes containing the word tradition:
“This is no argument against teaching manners to the young. On the contrary, it is a fine old tradition that ought to be resurrected from its current mothballs and put to work...In fact, children are much more comfortable when they know the guide rules for handling the social amenities. It’s no more fun for a child to be introduced to a strange adult and have no idea what to say or do than it is for a grownup to go to a formal dinner and have no idea what fork to use.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)
“The words of the Constitution ... are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.”
—Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965)
“And hereby hangs a moral highly applicable to our own trustee-ridden universities, if to nothing else. If we really wanted liberty of speech and thought, we could probably get it—Spain fifty years ago certainly had a longer tradition of despotism than has the United States—but do we want it? In these years we will see.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)