Celebrating Joulu (Yule) in Finland

Like most countries, the Finns enjoy special traditions at Christmastime, called Joulu. Typically, they celebrate on Christmas Eve, with festive meals, gifts from Santa and worship.  

On Christmas Eve, families might visit cemeteries to place candles on the gravestones and then attend worship services. Imagine the beauty of flickering candlelight illuminating the dark (the sun sets around 3:15 p.m.).

The Finnish Santa Claus is called joulupukki. He skips the roof-and-chimney routine — instead he knocks on the front door to deliver Christmas gifts, which then are put under the tree.

Joulupöytä is Christmas dinner, (translated “Yule” table). A traditional meal might feature ham with mustard, various presentations of fish — from gravlax (a smoked salmon) to fish roe, lutefisk and herring (often pickled), casseroles of root vegetables (like rutabagas or carrots) and mixed beetroot salad. The traditional beverage is mulled wine, glögi. 

Desserts include mixed fruit soup, rice pudding (whoever gets the hidden almond opens their gifts first), the thin, very brittle ginger cookies called piparkakut, and prune jam pastries, the joulutorttu. 
 

But before the meal, the worship service and the gift-giving, they enjoy one more tradition — the Christmas sauna. That’s the subject of my next post.

Nikki