A few things about Finninshness

Aerial view from Punkaharju (2017, Pixabay)

Land of a thousand lakes and dualities.

Closenesss to nature

Finland is known as “the land of a thousand of lakes”. Around 70% of our land is covered with trees, and greenery can be found even in the middle of the biggest cities like Helsinki and Tampere. We have tens of national parks that anyone can visit, and many Finns have their personal nature get away in the form of one’s summer gottage. Finnish people value their personal space and some peace and quiet from time to time, and those are things that our vast naturescape can help one to achieve.

Urban greenery: People relaxing at a park in Helsinki. (2015, Pixabay)
A summer view from Koskipuisto, Tampere. (2015, Pixabay)

Nation of dualities

Our summer is the time of nightless nights, during wich darkness doesn’t fall completely even in the middle of the night. And during the winter months we have to endure polar night. That means that we get very few hours of daylight, and in the northernmost parts sun doesn’t even rise for days.

During summer nights sun might not set at all. Picture above is from Levi in 2017 (Pixabay).

Finland has been declared to be the happiest country in the world, but still we have fairly high amount of severe depression cases. This could partly caused by our good universal health care: All people having acces to adequite health care boosts overall happiness, but also increases the number of mental health diagnosis.

Finns tend to keep their distance from others if possible and avoid idle small talk. We don’t like to interfere with other people’s personal matters, and often keep our own stuff private. So it might sound surprising that we like to squish in these small, hot rooms (saunas) in our birthday suits and can have a conversation just about anything with friends and family.

The one place on earth where Finns might make exceptions regarding personal space. (2017, Pixabay)

Comments

Leave a Reply

Processing comments...

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *