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Kalevala Day

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A statue of Väinämöinen, the hero of Kalevala, decorates the Old Student House in Helsinki, Finland.

Kalevala Day (Finnish: Kalevalan päivä), also known as Finnish Culture Day (Finnish: suomalaisen kulttuurin päivä), is celebrated on 28 February in honor of Finnish culture and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. The tale has profoundly shaped the Finnish national identity, influencing the country’s literature, music, and visual arts. The date is based on the day in 1835 when Elias Lönnrot signed the preface to the first edition of the Kalevala. It is one of the official flag flying days in Finland.[1][2]

Anniversaries of Kalevala Day are observed based on both the first edition of 1835, known as Old Kalevala, and the New Kalevala, published in 1849, which expanded the epic significantly.

The first known celebration of Kalevala Day took place in 1865, organized by university students in Helsinki. Over time, the event grew in significance, with major public celebrations held on the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the Old Kalevala. The Kalevala Society [fi], founded in 1919, has played a central role in organizing and promoting these celebrations, overseeing cultural programs and academic gatherings. Large-scale celebrations also took place on the 100th and 150th anniversaries of both versions of the Kalevala.

In 1978, an additional title, "Finnish Culture Day", was officially adopted, reflecting a shift in focus from exclusively celebrating the Kalevala to recognizing Finnish culture more broadly.

Kalevala—the Finnish national epic

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Main article: Kalevala

Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology. It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and Karelia and is one of the most significant works of Finnic literature. Kalevala has inspired numerous artists, including the Finnish classical composer Jean Sibelius and the Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

The first version of Kalevala, known as the Old Kalevala, was published in 1835 and consists of 12,078 verses. Lönnrot signed the preface on 28 February 1835, a date later celebrated as Kalevala Day.[3] The version of Kalevala most commonly known today, sometimes called the New Kalevala, was published in 1849. This edition, almost double the size of the Old Kalevala, contains 22,795 verses divided into fifty cantos.[4][3]

History

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Origins in 19th century

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Kalevala Day has its origins in Finland's academic world, which played a significant role in fostering the nationalistic movement during the 19th century. Amid fears of social unrest, the Russian administration banned Finnish student nations between 1852 and 1868. Despite this, the Savo-Karelian Student Nation [fi], following a hiatus, resumed its activities unofficially. In 1865, the student nation began holding its annual celebration on 28 February. These events took on a distinctly patriotic tone, with the first celebration featuring speeches that honored Kalevala and its compiler, Elias Lönnrot, as well as paying tribute to the students' home regions of Savonia and Karelia, and to Finland as a whole.[5]

In 1885, the Finnish Literature Society organized the first public Kalevala celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the work. The main event was held at the University of Helsinki, then known as the Imperial Alexander University, with additional celebrations taking place in other cities. Although Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen, one of the speakers at the main event, referred to Kalevala Day as a day of national significance, it did not yet become an annual celebration.[6]

Early 20th century

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Statue of Elias Lönnrot by Emil Wikström on the day of its reveal

In 1902, a statue of Elias Lönnrot by the sculptor Emil Wikström was erected in Helsinki. It depicts Lönnrot on a verse-collecting journey, writing in his notebook. Beside Lönnrot is the hero of Kalevala, Väinämöinen, and at the base of the monument's pedestal, the maiden Impi is selecting strands from her hair for a kantele.[7]

On the 60th anniversary of the New Kalevala in 1909, it was recognized that the work was being forgotten. The Young Finnish Party (Nuorsuomalaiset) began promoting the idea of an annual celebration. Among active proponents were poet Eino Leino and linguist Eemil Nestor Setälä. That year, university students marked the occasion with a torchlit procession to Lönnrot’s statue, where they raised cheers "to the memory of Elias Lönnrot, the creator of Kalevala". Small celebrations were held in cities across Finland, and the celebration was promoted as an alternative to Runeberg Day, observed on 5 February. While Johan Ludvig Runeberg wrote in Swedish, Kalevala was distinctly Finnish, highlighting the linguistic identity championed by the Fennoman movement.[8]

During the 1910s, the Finnish Alliance (Suomalaisuuden Liitto) and various youth associations [fi] organized Kalevala Day celebrations across the country. The 75th anniversary of the Old Kalevala in 1910 was especially popular, with nearly ten thousand people attending the ceremonies. Notably, both Swedish- and Finnish-speaking students participated in the procession to Lönnrot's statue, reflecting a period of reduced linguistic tension between the two language groups.[8]

From independence to the Continuation War

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After Finland's Declaration of Independence in 1917, nationalism surged, and there was renewed interest in Kalevala. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, various organizations—including schools, youth associations, and local chapters of the Marthas, Lotta Svärd, and the White Guard—organized Kalevala Day celebrations. Left-wing groups, however, typically did not observe Kalevala Day. During this period, many celebrations featured right-wing themes, such as pan-Finnicism and aggressive Karelianism. However, there were also Kalevala celebrations that adopted a more humanistic and pacifist tone.[9]

100th anniversary celebration of the Old Kalevala in the ballroom of the University of Helsinki

The Kalevala Society [fi] (Kalevalaseura), officially founded in 1919, played a central role in organizing and promoting Kalevala Day celebrations. It took responsibility for sending out programs for schools, cultural organizations, and public education initiatives. In Helsinki, the society began hosting an academic and cultural gathering, attended by distinguished guests, featuring a program of speeches, music, and performances. The daytime ceremonies included a visit to the statue of Elias Lönnrot, which had been decorated for the occasion. The largest event of the era was the four-day 100th anniversary celebration of the Old Kalevala in 1935, organized by the Kalevala Society in collaboration with other associations and supported by the state.[10]

In 1941, prior to the start of the Continuation War, Kalevala Day was celebrated in Helsinki Exhibition Hall as a "Kalevala–Karelia" event. The speeches and newspaper articles from that time adopted an aggressive tone, using Kalevala to justify the impending war. After Finland's defeat, Kalevala was reinterpreted and used as a source of more peaceful material.[11][12]

Post-war events

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In 1949, large celebrations were again held to mark the 100th anniversary of the New Kalevala. However, by this time, the epic had become politicized, resulting in two separate events: one organized by the Kalevala Society and another by the left-wing Finnish People's Democratic League. Earlier that year, Soviet-Finnish politician and literary historian Otto Wille Kuusinen had published a new edition of Kalevala, which included a Marxist introduction. In it, Kuusinen rejected Lönnrot's bourgeois theories regarding the origin and age of the verses and emphasized that Kalevala was based on Karelian, rather than Finnish, poetry.[11][13]

During Matti Kuusi's tenure as chairman of the Kalevala Society (1963–1975), the focus of Kalevala Day celebrations shifted. Nationalistic elements were scaled back, and the format of the event became more diverse. During this period, the celebrations were organized in the form of cultural theme weeks, which changed each year. These included "Vernacular week", "Finnish landscape week", "Sámi week", "Folk song week", and "Karelian culture week". These events were held in various cities across Finland and aimed to appeal to different audiences. The transformation into themed cultural weeks allowed the celebrations to engage with contemporary cultural issues and to provide a platform for the exploration of Finnish traditions, arts, and education.[14]

Kalevala Day had become an established flag-flying day as early as the 1920s. Its status was confirmed in 1952, when it was added to the flag day list in the Finnish almanac. The flag-flying day was officially confirmed by decree in 1978, when it was also given the additional epithet "Finnish Culture Day", reflecting the evolution from a celebration of Kalevala to that of Finnish culture more broadly.[15][16]

Extensive celebrations took place during the 150th anniversary of the Old Kalevala in 1985, with 500 events distributed throughout the year. During the 150th anniversary of the New Kalevala in 1999, celebrations expanded abroad, with over 700 events held in Finland and 42 other countries.[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Ennelin, Esa (27 February 2019). "Kalevala Day – A Celebration of Finnish Culture". Discover Helsinki. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Finland marks Culture Day in honor of national epic". News.cn. 29 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  3. ^ a b Sihvo 1979, p. 94.
  4. ^ Kalevala Society. "Kalevala, the national epic". Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 15 August 2010.
  5. ^ Sihvo 1979, p. 95.
  6. ^ Sihvo 1979, pp. 95–96.
  7. ^ "Elias Lönnrot". HAM (in Swedish). Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  8. ^ a b Sihvo 1979, pp. 96–97.
  9. ^ Sihvo 1979, p. 99.
  10. ^ Sihvo 1979, p. 100.
  11. ^ a b Sihvo 1979, p. 101.
  12. ^ "Kalevalan päivä: Suur-Suomesta Paasikiven linjaan". Kalevalan kulttuurihistoria (in Finnish). 23 August 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  13. ^ "Kuusisen Kalevalan runoutta". Kalevalan kulttuurihistoria (in Finnish). 22 August 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  14. ^ Sihvo 1979, pp. 101–102.
  15. ^ Lindberg, Johan (19 January 2011). "Kalevaladagen". Uppslagsverket Finland. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  16. ^ Oja, Heikki (2007). Aikakirja 2007 (PDF). Helsinki: Helsingin yliopiston almanakkatoimisto. p. 184. ISBN 978-952-10-3221-9. Retrieved 23 April 2010. Archived 22 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ "Kalevalan juhlinta – Kalevala 175 juhlavuosi". kalevala175.net. Retrieved 10 February 2025.

Sources

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  • Sihvo, Hannes (1979). "Kalevalan päivä". In Vento, Unto (ed.). Juhlakirja: suomalaiset merkkipäivät (in Finnish). Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. ISBN 951-717-178-1.
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