Hyvää Uutta Vuotta!

Can you guess from context what this little bit of Finnish means? It says, 'Happy New Year!' My greeting may be a bit late, but 2013 is still new -- I imagine that many of you are still writing '12' in the date slot like I am. After a whirlwind tour of Iowa, we have returned to Helsinki and to the peaceful monotony of a routine. Here are a few things we missed while we were away:

The shortest day:
In Helsinki, it's not so bad. At least when compared to the rest of the country. Here the shortest day occurred on December 21st and clocked in at 5 hours and 48 minutes. That doesn't sound so terrible, right? But, when you consider that in order to achieve those numbers, the sun rises around 9:20 and sets just after 3, your perspective changes. The other downside is that it is rather cloudy most of the time here and so it is rare to actually see more than a dim brightness. For some people this means real problems of depression and to help combat it, they use light therapy. 'Nordic Lamps' are manufactured and you are supposed to turn it on for 30 minutes every morning to 'reset your clock' and those who use it swear by its effectiveness. Depressed or not, everyone hopes for fresh snow during these dark months: whatever light is present (sun, filtered sun, street lights) is reflected by the snow to create a more glowing environment. On the upside, the days are quickly lengthening and we've already gained 45 minutes of daylight since the solstice and a few days of sunshine.

Christmas:
The Christmas holiday is widely celebrated in Finland with Christmas Eve being the most important. This is the day that you would spend with your family for the traditional meal and gift exchange. This means nearly everyone and I believe that public transit even shuts down in the early afternoon. So unless you have a car or are willing to shell out some major €, you had better get to where you are going by 2 pm, otherwise you will be stranded. It is also a holiday, so you won't find places of business open, either. Christmas Day is a day of relaxing after the night before, and for visiting the people you didn't see the day before. Much the same, Boxing Day is another relaxing day and for visiting friends. Though this day after Christmas is typically a British thing, I think it's been adopted here to make the holidays a bit more relaxing and to give people the time off from work because they would normally take it off anyway.

New Year's Eve:
This isn't too different from the way the rest of the world celebrates NYE: in the presence of family or friends and staying awake until midnight to welcome the new year. There were fireworks in Helsinki and I am unaware of anything that might distinguish a Finnish NYE celebration from a NYE celebration anywhere else. It is also a time to reflect on the past year and to make resolutions for a better coming year. 

We return to our Finnish lessons this week and hope that we really didn't forget as much as we thought we did. Though, when someone in Iowa asked me on the spot to say a greeting in Finnish, I blanked. Now that we've returned, so has my Finnish and I can even understand what my coworkers are talking about -- not exactly what they are saying, but the subject of their conversation. So far, it hasn't been me! Wish me luck -- I'll need all that I can get in learning the nuances of this language. I hope that you all had an enjoyable holiday season, and that 2013 is your best year yet!