Free Wisdom Online: Juhannus in Helsinki

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Last night Finland celebrated Midsummer Eve.  It's an ancient pagan
holiday which has been adopted by the church as "St. John's Day", and
is hence referred to as "Juhannus".  A very similar holiday existed in
Russia at some point but has disappeared since.  In Finland, however,
Midsummer is one of the biggest holidays of the year still.  Most
people head to their summer holidays for the long weekend (and many
then stay there for the duration of their summer vacations), but there
were a few people left in the city - it wasn't quite as dead as
American cities tend to be on Christmas day.

I was advised to go to an island in Helsinki called Seurasaari, where
there were some public celebrations, including a craft fair, singing,
skits and bonfires at night.  Afterwards I went to check out downtown
Helsinki, which was far from empty, but instead was filled with street
musicians and happy drunk people.

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