Sauna emojis—plus others that celebrate summer

In December 2015, This is Finland unveiled nearly three dozen emojis, poking fun at themselves with a wry sense of humor. No other country has followed suit.

Since making them available one each day for a month in an “Advent calendar” style, they have added another dozen and a half.

Of course “sauna” (with both genders) was included — it’s the one word from the Finnish language that’s part of our dictionary. Both sauna-goer emojis show the individual steaming up on a wooden bench, holding a ladle with a handy bucket of water nearby. They look fairly alert — maybe because they’re only on the first round of their three-round löyly.

The country has 3.2 million saunas for its 5.4 million people. Every one of them has her/his own way of going to sauna, which will cleanse both body and mind and body. Spirit too, amazingly — sauna is a holy place as well for Finns.

Sauna whisk (which I wrote about on this blog in great detail from June 29, 2014, through August 10, 2014, — nine posts altogether!)




Because it’s summer, here also are:

Forest — the longing for fresh air and silence.
With millions of forested acres with mushrooms and berries, people are allowed to pick at will. “It’s called ‘Everyman’s right.’ ”


Dad’s favorite superfood — Blueberries, 

White nights — in the land of the Midnight Sun,

 

Out of office — lazing in the lake,

and
Pesapallo (see my entry for August 14, 2015, on the Finns’ way to make this game uniquely theirs.)

And don’t forget sisu, which they describe as the feeling of perseverance.

“In Finland, as the saying goes, we ‘go through even a grey rock.’ Arctic nature has given us guts — or ‘sisu’ as we call it. It’s about not giving in — even when it might be wiser to do so…”

I do identify with this trait, probably to the chagrin of my loved ones.

These emojis are so much fun, I will share more of them in later posts. They’re free to download — check your app store for “Finland emojis.”

#1 of this series — there’s a lot more to share!

Nikki