Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
As Finland marked 100 years of independence, communities across the Upper Peninsula joined in the celebration.
Here in the Keweenaw, many residents gathered yesterday at the Finnish American Heritage Center where they enjoyed a viewing of the Presidential Palace Reception from Helsinki.
“And Finland is raising up this vision for the world. And that vision is written with the word ‘together’.”
‘Together’–that’s the theme of yesterday’s celebration as Finlandia President Phillip Johnson kicked off the event with a welcome speech to the area residents who came to enjoy sandwiches, snacks and being together.
In Finland, the annual celebration involves the country’s president inviting 2,600 citizens to the Presidential Palace, who then form a line and take turns shaking hands with the President and his wife, with the event being broadcast on national TV.
Mika Tomburi of the Finnish American Heritage Center describes the gathering, “Everybody’s having their own viewing party with their food and snacks and a bunch of friends over, so that’s what we’re going for here today. Oh, and we’re playing bingo, too! And somebody always forgets to shake the president’s wife’s hand, so we have a bingo sheet where you can just tick those boxes off. Whatever clichés take place, you know, you can play bingo with the clichés.”
The first Presidential Reception took place in 1919 and has been a tradition ever since. Six years later the hand shaking ceremony was added. And at the end of Finnish prohibition in 1934, alcohol was added to the reception and eventually dancing in the evening.
The annual broadcast first aired in 1957 and it’s estimated that more than half of the country’s population watches the event from home.
