And more emojis — which mystify me

#3 in this series of 4

Here are more Finnish emojis — these express characteristics I don’t know much about. Or am I just not seeing the truth?

Torilla tavataan — The feeling when something so great happens you just have to share it with somebody. “Although Finns are not crowd-loving ‘samba people’ by nature, when something great happens, we Finns head for the market square. There’s one in every city. If Finns win an ice-hockey tournament, a singing contest or pretty much anything, the market square is the place to go.”

Matti Nykänen — the feeling of bon voyage. “Matti Nykänen, the world’s most successful ski jumper ever, has introduced some of the well-used catchphrases for Finnish language. We say ‘every chance is an opportunity’ or we estimate the percentages with ‘fifty-sixty’ share. One thing we know for sure: ‘life is life.’ ”

Karjalanpiirakka — the feeling of craving something delicious. “Karjalanpiirakka is a traditional pasty or pie originally from the region of Karelia. It is a rye crust usually with a filling of rice porridge. The original topping is egg butter. Karjalanpiirakka is eaten all over Finland at all times and occasions from breakfast to weddings.” Serious yum.

black gold (has to be chocolate!)

Finnish love — “Finnish love is often quiet. Finns won’t shout about love to the world. Actions speak louder than words. When we do love someone, it’s deep — very deep.” (The old joke — about the couple who hadn’t said the words “I love you” for over 50 years, because it had been said once, and nothing had changed — comes to mind.)

Happiness — the feeling of winning [over] our lovely neighbor Sweden in anything.

Iceman — the feeling of “Leave me alone. I know what I’m doing.” “This Finnish attitude was made famous by the Iceman himself, Formula 1 driver Kimi Räikkönen, who quite nicely sums it all up.

Headbanger — the feeling of banging your head. In Finland, heavy metal is mainstream. “There are more heavy metal bands in Finland per capita than anywhere else.”

Unbreakable — “Finns are tough, almost unbreakable. Finland has produced quite a bunch of unbreakable and long-lasting items such as the old Nokia 3310 phone which is famous for being, well, unbreakable.”

Lost hopes — the feeling of getting your hopes up. Every time. “Finland is

notorious for its lack of success in the Eurovision Song Contest. Each time we wait for a win but get zero points. So to get back at them we entered a band of monsters in 2006 — and won.”

I need a bit of clarification to understand these better —

a trusted friend,

pusa hispidi saimensis, 

the voice, the conductor and the king.

Nikki

xmas.finland.fi