This recent article from The Globe and Mail discusses the culture of cleansing around the world, including the Finnish sauna. It examines the past, present, and future roles of public baths in our communities.
With the arrival of fall, we now reflect on what has been an amazing spring and summer in Calgary. The highlight of our CFCA Spring/Summer program was another successful Midsummer celebration at Edworthy Park. Despite some rain, many of our members came out to celebrate, enjoy delicious food, and play some games. We were so happy to see how many young families joined us. Thank you so much to all who attended, and especially to those who volunteered their time and energy to plan and put on this special annual event.
We have another wonderful line-up of events planned for this fall, which you can see listed under the “events” tab on this website. Members will have received a newsletter outlining these events, but please check the website regularly for any updates/corrections. We hope to see you all this fall for baking, movies, concerts, plays, and much more! Welcome!
The annual edition of Athabasca University’s “Open” magazine features two articles about Finnish Albertans. The first article is about Dr. Meaghan Peuramäki-Brown’s (CFCA secretary) archaeological research in Central America (cover, p.12-13). The second article is about filmmakers Albert and Pirkko Karvonen’s most recent film, The Forest is Calling, which CFCA featured for one of their movie nights in fall 2015 (p.17).
You can read the magazine by clicking on the following link
Want to know a little more (or a refresher) on Easter traditions in Finland? Check out this great blog entry:
Last night, many members of the CFCA attended the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra’s (CPO) Nordic Masters concert at the Jack Singer. CFCA was proudly recognized as one of the event supporters.
The evening started with a pre-concert discussion with guest conductor Rune Bergmann, who graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. You can read more about him at http://imgartists.com/artist/rune_bergmann
The concert began at 8pm and consisted of three pieces:
1. Sibelius’ Finlandia
2. Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, featuring the talented, 21-year old Conrad Tao on the piano (read more about this impressive young man at http://conradtao.com/ )
3. Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4 “The Inextinguishable”
Following the concert, a post-event conversation occurred with members of the orchestra concerning the featured pieces.
Overall, the event was a great success and our members had a lovely time.
Happy St. Urho’s Day to all! Make sure to celebrate this truly Finnish-Canadian/Finnish-American holiday today.
If you are unsure as to what St. Urho’s day consists of, visit http://www.sainturho.com/
If you are looking for somewhere to celebrate, you can join some of us at the new Unicorn Pub (formerly Below Deck) on Stephen Ave. (Calgary), starting at 6:30pm this evening. Remember to wear purple and green!
Well, better late than never. Happy belated Kalevala Day, which was officially on February 28th. In honour of this day, I thought I would share a book that I just read. It is JRR Tolkien’s (of “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” fame) short story “The Story of Kullervo”. We have long known that Tolkien was fascinated by the Finnish language and culture, but it has only recently come to light that he actually wrote a short story based on the Kalevala.
This book, released in 2015, includes the short story (never published in Tolkien’s lifetime), along with essays, written by Tolkien and the editor, about the Kalevala. It is a wonderful, quick read, and I definitely recommend it to everyone.
Enjoy!
Meaghan Peuramäki-Brown
A recent episode of Alberta Roots highlighted the history of Finnish peoples in Alberta. Our own CFCA President, Outi McEachern, was interviewed for the segment.
Below is the link for the episode. The section about Finnish Albertans and the interview with Outi starts around the 5:30 mark
On December 6th, Finnish people all over the world celebrate their Independence Day (you can read more about this at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Declaration_of_Independence).
This year, the CFCA held their celebration and annual Christmas party on Saturday, December 5th, at the Scandinavian Centre. Over 90 people were in attendance, so we had a very full and happy Viking Hall.
Gathering in the Viking Hall
To start the evening, we enjoyed some opening remarks from our association’s president, Ms. Outi McEachern, as well as the Honourary Consul of Finland, Ms. Judith Romanchuk. Following the initial remarks, we were entertained with musical performances by some of our members, then on to drinks and an amazing feast, full of many traditional Finnish holiday dishes.
After supper, we sang some Christmas carols in Finnish and English, and the Little Finns performed the Christmas Classic “Tonttujen jouluyö” for us (you can see a similar version on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYA-R_75Aj8). Then, we had a surprise visit from Joulupukki, who delivered gifts to each of the children.
Little Finns performing.
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What a wonderful time we had, and we are now all looking forward to the holidays and the new year.
Hyvää Joulua from all of us at the CFCA!
For more photos from the event, visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Calgary-Finlandia-Cultural-Association-194624443904568/photos_stream
Calgary Finlandia Cultural Association 