If you’re planning your next big holiday, Finland should be right on top of your list of places to consider. Finland, a former Russian Grand Duchy, celebrated the 100th anniversary of its independence on Wednesday. So, on that note, here are some reasons to visit the nation on the Baltic Sea:
Sauna ritual
The sauna (which means “bath” in Finnish) is a ritual — almost even a rite — which Finland’s 5.5 million inhabitants carry out at least once a week. A sociable event that once lent a sense of community, saunas are now generally enjoyed privately or with friends: there are an estimated two to three million saunas in the country.
During the Cold War, Finnish president Urho Kekkonen negotiated with Soviet diplomats in the sauna of his residence in his birthday suit — a sauna is enjoyed in the nude in Finland. In 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin also dropped his towel when he sweated it out with the husband of his Finnish counterpart Tarja Halonen. Finland even hosts a sauna world championship, an annual endurance test that occasionally, as in 2010, ends in death for competitors taking the heat in temperatures hitting 110 degrees Celsius (230 Fahrenheit). To mark the centenary of its independence, Finland has launched “a touring sauna” that is currently criss-crossing the United States.
Hobbyhorsing
It’s not expensive and it’s good for your health: hobbyhorsing has become a social phenomenon in Finland, where some 10,000 girls practise the sport. The idea? Straddle a wooden stick decorated with a pretend, but laboriously decorated, horse’s head and off you go as if you were riding a real horse.Hobbyhorsing has its own sporting federation and jumping competitions, which are taken very seriously.
Finland is also home to a slew of other wacky competitions: the air guitar world championship gathers dozens of contenders each year who go on stage and energetically pretend to play a non-existing guitar. In addition there are the world championships of mobile phone throwing and rubber boot tossing, as well as the wife-carrying contest and the swamp soccer world competition.
Lenin museum
Finland is the only country outside Russia to have a museum dedicated to the father of the Bolshevik revolution, Vladimir Lenin. Housed since 1946 in the Workers House of Tampere, in southwestern Finland, the Lenin Museum has a library, archives and a collection of bronze busts and propaganda posters. Three Soviet leaders visited the museum: Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev.
