The Violence of Springtime in Finland 💥

For anyone who hasn’t lived in Finland this is a warning.

For anyone who has lived in Finland this is a reminder to stay away.

For anyone who lives in Finland this is relatable. It will either make you laugh or cry. I will not be held responsible for any emigration from Finland this article may cause.

In the Beginning, There Was No Light

During the winter you live in a tunnel. A tunnel of darkness. You’re cooped up inside. Waking up in the morning feels like rising from the dead. You’re oblivious of the constant energy deficit you’re in. Some days the snow hits your face like a thousand miniature whips. Some days you have dry lips. The strands of hair in your nose freeze if you dare to take a deep breath out in the cold. You march through snow—and life.

Some days you may get a glimpse of glorious sunshine for a couple of hours (if you’re not stuck inside at work). Maybe you’ll catch some rays during the weekend. Then you can go ice skating and actually see something without the huge artificial lights beside the rink. The snow is glistening, but at the same time you must worry you don’t go blind (yes, ’snow blindness’ is an actual thing).

You may think that we see the Northern Lights every day in winter. I hate to break it to you but there exists plenty of Finns, myself included, who have never seen the lights with their bare eyes.

The Turning Point

Throughout winter you wish you could see the sun more often. Springtime comes and you finally see the sun more often. You’d want to bask in it, but instead you have to hide from it. Your eyes hurt from seeing too much light. Your brain hurts. Your body is confused. A headache creeps in. It feels violent. People get depressed. 

Disbelief and Confusion

You feel the warmth of sunshine on your skin for the first time. You hold still in disbelief. You soak in the warmth in disbelief. Memories come flooding back from the (short) summers of your childhood. You feel energized. You don’t feel like you’re rising from the dead in the morning anymore.

Is the spring actually coming? Is this the end of winter? The answer is no. Don’t rejoice too soon because you never know if it'll snow in May. It’s called ”takatalvi”—a comeback of winter. Snow falls, then melts again. A few spring-y days. Snow falls, then melts again. Still hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

We have a saying: ”Paistaa se aurinko risukasaankin”. It means that despite everything, the sun shines even on a stack of sticks. Finland is a stack of sticks. The angle from which the sun shines is very slim. But for a very short time in the year, even this stack of sticks gets sunshine. And it shines all day long. We reach the ”nightless night” mid-June. The sun literally doesn’t disappear from the horizon during the night. Try sleeping well on that night without a sleep mask.

The Point of No Return

Finnish people are the most optimistic people I know. They wait for summer all year long. We may have decent weather for 2-3 months. A few days during those months are wonderful. People get drunk and drown in the lakes because of how happy they are. People frown because we all know in the back of our heads that winter is coming back too soon. The summer ends and we end up in the tunnel of darkness again. That is the circle of life in Finland. Might as well live elsewhere.

P.S.

Despite all this, there are just a couple of things I like about Finland:

•  saunas everywhere
•  excellent rye bread
•  best cardamom/cinnamon buns (’korvapuusti’ and any ’pulla’)
•  best salty (and sweet) liquorice
•  public spaces are usually very clean
•  stunning archipelago on the west coast
• beautiful jugend-style buildings in Helsinki