Hel­lo again, dear rea­der! Fee­ling a bit chil­ly alrea­dy? No won­der, as it has alrea­dy been snowing in the Swiss Alps and in Fin­nish Lapland too. Win­ter and espe­cial­ly snow are very exo­tic for peop­le com­ing from two-sea­son coun­tries but as a Finn, one needs to be very accus­to­med to this arc­tic sea­son. Grab a cup of some­thing hot to drink while con­ti­nuing rea­ding for­ward becau­se here are a few spe­cial­ties about living in Fin­land during winter.

Fin­nish win­ter can be descri­bed with tons of words. It is dark. It is long. It is free­zing cold. But on the other hand, it is magi­cal! It is peace­ful. It is pure whiteness all around. Finns are so accus­to­med to snow in the Nort­hern regi­on that they have over a hund­red dif­fe­rent words describ­ing snow.

Win­ter does not only mean snow, though. It trans­forms the ever­y­day life for a Finn. First of all, it is dark. Days — mea­ning the visi­ble time of the day when the­re is sun­light avail­ab­le — get shor­ter and shor­ter right until win­ter sol­sti­ce just befo­re Christ­mas. Uti­li­zing this time of the day is cru­cial, whe­ther you need to go and collect fire­wood to keep the cabin warm or just to be out­doors to gain some ener­gy for the rest of the day. Finns are acti­ve and out­door­sy peop­le who gather to cross coun­try ski­ing tracks or Nor­dic wal­king rou­tes to uti­li­ze the day­light peri­od and to get some fresh win­ter air.

This dar­ker time of the win­ter is cal­led ‘kaa­mos’, a peri­od of the year when the sun does not rise at all in Lapland. Natu­ral­ly, white snow reflects a lot of the sun haze and you still have tho­se few hours of day­light to use.

Win­ter is deman­ding. Ever­y­whe­re you move, snow is a chal­len­ge. For cars, ani­mals and man­power. Befo­re you can even move from your home yard in the morning you need to ‘do the snow work’, push all fresh­ly sno­wed pow­der or slush away and clean your car. The­re is no chan­ce to move around in the forest without skis or snow­shoes. Ever­ything takes much lon­ger during win­ter, even get­ting your car engi­ne warm and run­ning befo­re taking off. The­re­fo­re, one needs a lot of pati­ence and good sche­du­ling skills if time­ta­ble is nee­ded at all.

As ever­ything deman­ds more time and ener­gy, food needs to be the resour­ce to replace that lost ener­gy. Warm soups, stews, meat meals along­side pota­toes are very typi­cal, yet simp­le and tas­ty win­ter food. Finns are also excel­lent in food pre­ser­va­ti­on, as it is impos­si­ble to grow fresh ingre­dients during the win­ter sea­son. Ber­ries, juice syrup, jams, pick­led vege­ta­bles, dried or fro­zen meat and jar­red goo­dies are only a few examp­les how to reser­ve the fore­go­ne Autumn’s harvest.

All in all, we think win­ter is magi­cal. Snow damps all the sounds around and if you go for a snow­shoe walk in the midd­le of the forest and start to listen…you hear the not­hing­ness. It is as cal­ming as put­ting earplugs on. Can you remem­ber the last time when you heard abso­lute­ly not­hing when being out­doors? We can show you a few excel­lent pla­ces in Fin­nish Lapland, so pay us a visit this winter!