Finnish Paganism
by Anssi Alhonen, Fall 2006.
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As the years passed Wainamoinen [sic]
Recognized his waning powers,
Empty-handed, heavy-hearted,
Sang his farewell song to Northland,
To the people of Wainola;
Sang himself a boat of copper,
Beautiful his bark of magic;
At the helm sat the magician,
Sat the ancient wisdom-singer.
Westward, westward, sailed the hero
O'er the blue-back of the waters,
Singing as he left Wainola,
This his plaintive song and echo:
"Suns may rise and set in Suomi,
Rise and set for generations,
When the North will learn my teachings,
Will recall my wisdom-sayings,
Hungry for the true religion.
Then will Suomi need my coming,
Watch for me at dawn of morning,
That I may bring back the Sampo,
Bring anew the harp of joyance,
Bring again the golden moonlight,
Bring again the silver sunshine,
Peace and plenty to the Northland."
Kalevala / Rune 50 (John Martin Crawford translation)
FOREWORD
The main goal of this article is to provide informational
overview on the basics of Finnish paganism to the English-speaking
people. I'd also like to share a few thoughts concerning the modern
revival of our ancestral traditions that is starting to take place
in Finland. But first I will give a short introduction to my home
country and also my own definition of paganism.
Finland is a small independent European nation of little over
five million inhabitants. Geographically it includes the relatively
large, sub-arctic forested region between Russia and the Baltic
Sea. I won't elaborate here on the subject of geography or Finnish
culture because this article is purely focused on the subject of
Finnish paganism. However, paganism and Finnish culture do have a
lot in common. Perhaps you have heard of our famous composer Jean
Sibelius, who was himself very interested in the old mythology and
frequently used pagan themes in his works. Kullervo, a choral
symphony by Sibelius, is for example based on the life of an
antihero whose tragic story is told in the ancient poems.
Sauna, the exotic bathing chamber, is another thing that is
substantial part of the Finnish culture and also part of paganism.
Traditional folklore is filled with pagan beliefs and customs
concerning the sauna. Anyone who has studied European pagan
traditions has probably heard about our national epic, Kalevala. It
is a collection of mythic folk poems tied together for one cohesive
narrative by the philologist Elias Lönnrot in the 1800s.
Although Kalevala is a great inspiration for many modern Finnish
pagans, it should also be noted that many of the old poems were
heavily edited by Lönnrot who also occasionally changed the
chronology of the events and added new characters while removing
others. Kalevala was written to inspire the national awakening in
Finland that ultimately led to declaration of independence from
Russia in 1917. So - Kalevala is not meant to be a spiritual work
and it is not a sort of "holy book" for the pagans.
What about the definition of paganism? It seems that everyone
has got their own idea what that word means depending whether they
are Christians, Satanists, Wiccans, etc. My definition of pagan is
rather different from the definitions made by other "pagans", and
it is not shared by many in these modern times. The original Latin
meaning of Paganus is heavily debated, but I don't really care,
whether pagan was a label given to us by Christians. Christian,
too, was originally a derogatory word given to them by their
opponents and they still take pride in that name.
I think that each nation has got their own gods, their own
traditions and the best way for everybody to find meaning and
holiness in their lives is to cherish and follow their ancestral
traditions. I'm not saying that person can't move into another
place and another culture and adopt the customs and honor the gods
of the new place. This happened all the time when people were
pagans, and they married to another tribe or traveled abroad. But,
the difference was that religions (spiritual customs) were tied to
a place and to a nation. There were no universal religions and the
land were people lived was understood in mythological and spiritual
terms. Tribal land was considered sacred and it held the buried
bones of the people's ancestors dating back to ancient times. The
land, customs, ancestors and religion were the same thing, a way of
living. This is the holistic understanding of life I am really
trying to learn myself and make it a reality once again by reviving
the traditions of my ancestors in this post-Christian age. That is
my definition of being a pagan.
I present here mostly factual information, but of course this
piece is influenced by the way I personally understand the
traditions of my ancestors. I have tried to be brief and for the
sake of brevity I had to leave lot of things unmentioned. Huge part
of the information is gleaned from the Finnish-language edition of
Wikipedia, as it has got literally hundreds of excellent articles
on Finnish mythology and paganism.
There are obviously many layers in Finnish paganism, since it
has been constantly evolving ever since the Stone Age, always
carrying with it the remnants of earlier beliefs. This evolution
continued up to the point of conversion to Christianity that took
place in Finland some time between 1000 - 1300 AD depending to some
amount on what geographical area is examined. In this article I
write about the Viking Age version paganism, as it was the last
form of indigenous spirituality that prospered before paganism was
suppressed by a foreign faith. I will first provide some historical
background about Finnish paganism. After that I will present
detailed information about historical pagan world view and customs.
At the end of this article I share a few thoughts about the modern
revival of Finnish paganism. Finally, at the very bottom I have put
up a short list of links to freely available English-language
articles related to Finnish paganism.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Literary sources about Finnish paganism are relatively young and
scarce. Oldest surviving literary work mentioning Finnish pagan
gods is the foreword written by famous clergyman Mikael Agricola to
his Finnish translation of the biblical Psalms that was published
in 1551. In the foreword Agricola lists the names of some Finnish
gods and condemns folk for worshipping them. Although information
about old paganism has been collected only after long period of
Christianity, people still held many pagan beliefs and practices
even centuries after conversion, especially in the Karelian areas.
Some of these beliefs and practices survived well into the 21st
century. During his trips to record Karelian folklore in the early
20th century it was common for Elias Lönnrot to meet people
who believed that the god Väinämöinen was present at
the creating the world, and that he was participating in the
phenomena seen in nature. Stories about Jesus,
Väinämöinen, Christian God and the pagan god Ukko
were happily mixed in the rural area, giving birth to a
syncretistic religion that was still very much alive in the later
part of 20th century.
Like the spiritual beliefs of other groups, the religion of
Finnish people and their view of the world changed dramatically
through time. The beliefs of Stone Age people are thought to be
shamanistic. After agriculture replaced the old hunter-gatherer way
of living, new concepts of time and fertility were adopted.
Arriving along with new cultural influences, there were probably
new gods too. After people started settling more permanently to one
place, haltijat, elf-like guardian spirits of places, grew in
importance. During Christian times these mighty spiritual guardians
of prosperous communities diminished into the concept of small
house-elves or tonttu, who were lurking around in the corners of
the household.
As the Indo-European cultural influences reached Finland they
also brought with them a new masculine god associated with thunder
called Ukko (old man). As Ukko became Ylijumala (over-god) of
heaven he replaced the old sky-god Ilmarinen who was from then on
remembered as the mythical smith controlling the winds and as the
primeval forger of the sky-dome. At the time of the Viking Age
Finnish paganism resembled closely the ancient religion of the
Scandinavian people who, for example, also had male god associated
with thunder, Þórr (Thor).
After the conversion, paganism started slowly vanishing from
Finland as Christianity tightened its grip of the people. In some
cases, the pagan Ukko was merely replaced with the concept of
Heavenly Father and the smaller gods were associated with Christian
saints. So, in a sense, paganism continued to live in the guise of
Catholicism, since the customs themselves didn't change, they were
merely given a new name and a new superficial meaning. In many
locations, the new saints were even worshipped with the same way in
the same place as the old pagan gods. In Karelia stones used in
pagan sacrifices were named after saints. The protestant
reformation sweeping over Finland in the 1500s destroyed many pagan
elements that had been pivotal to syncretistic Catholicism. Witch
hunts furthered this development. Fortunately, Eastern Orthodoxy in
Karelia didn't suffer from these developments and the priests were
generally more tolerant towards old customs, such as home altars
for deceased relatives, and that was the main reason why many pagan
customs and beliefs survived in Karelia up until to the time of
Soviet Union.
Even today, many traces of the old Finnish paganism can be seen
and heard in the Finnish language, place names, customs, methods of
traditional healing and in national holidays. One of the biggest
annual holidays in Finland is Juhannus which is celebrated around
the summer solstice. The official Christian version claims that
Juhannus is the "celebration of John the Baptist's birthday". This
was of course the new meaning given to pagan midsummer celebration,
Ukon juhla (Ukko's feast) and pagan traditions such as burning
bonfires, raising may poles, and even folk magic are still widely
practiced around the time of summer solstice. Not even many
Christians seriously argue that Juhannus is a real Christian
holiday.
OVERVIEW OF FINNISH PAGANISM
- INTRODUCTION
-
Like other pagan religions, Finnish paganism in its historical
form was not a separate part of life like universal religions such
as Christianity, but a whole way of living. Paganism was a
collection of customs and beliefs concerning both supernatural and
everyday things.
Ancient Finnish pagan world view recognized many gods, guardian
spirits (elves) and other spiritual entities. Different deities
were recognized and worshipped in different locations and
communities. Also, as time went on, the recognition gained by some
gods grow, while the importance of others diminished. For this
simple reason, it would be absurd to try to create Christian-like
dogma for Finnish paganism. There is no doubt that even the
pre-Christian pagans themselves would find it extremely
illogical.
- GODS, GUARDIAN SPIRITS AND OTHER SPIRITUAL ENTITIES
-
There were still some gods who were recognized and worshipped
among all communities and tribes. Ukko Ylijumala was almost
certainly one of those gods. Ukko was the god of weather and
thunder. Ukko also protected his people in war and drove rabbits to
the hunters traps. He was generally regarded as the most powerful
deity, although there is much speculation that in peoples minds he
was later influenced by the concept of the Christian God, making
him a nearly omnipotent figure that he certainly wasn't in the
pagan times. He is thought to be originally Baltic god and related
to the Lithuanian Perkunas (Finnish: Perkele, meaning the Christian
devil is extremely popular curse word).
Lightning bolts were thought to be signs of Ukko's anger and his
attempts to destroy evil spirits. He was armed with Ukonvasara,
Ukko's hammer. Similar to Scandinavian Þórr's
Mjöllnir. According to folk poems Ukko moved in the skies and
held courts (käräjät) with other gods. Viper snakes
with a lightning-like pattern on their backs were sacred to Ukko.
Ukko's wife was Rauni, a goddess associated with rowan trees and
motherhood. Each household usually had a rowan in their yard, for
it was thought that lightning never stroke near a rowan.
The primeval gods present at creation of the world are told to
have been Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, Joukahainen and
possibly Lemminkäinen. They are often mentioned to be
brothers. Väinämöinen is rather complicated
character, who existed before the world was even created. In the
beginning Ilman impi (Maiden of the Air) wandered in the empty
nothingness, when she was suddenly impregnated with foams of the
primeval sea by Iku-Turilas or Kave. After a very long time she
gave birth to Väinämöinen, who already had the
wisdom and the form of an old sage. While
Väinämöinen floated in the primeval ocean, a
goldeneye laid an egg on his knee. When he moved his leg, the eggs
fell and broke, thus creating the world.
Väinämöinen was also the first human being, god
of seers (tietäjä), father of poetry and music. He is
also associated with shapeshifting, water, boats, sailing and
navigating while traveling through waterways. In the ancient poems
Väinämöinen often travels to Tuonela (the realm of
the dead) to retrieve hidden information from the dead. He is a
master healer and defeats all diseases, which come from the cold
and dark Pohjola. Väinämöinen also travels among
humans as a sage, just like Scandinavian Óðinn (Odin).
Orion constellation was called Väinämöinen's
scythe.
Ilmarinen is ancient god who participated in the creation of the
world by forging the sky, the Sun, the Moon, the Aurora Borealis,
dusk and dawn. He also invented iron and fire. Ilmarinen is
associated with winds. Later his role was diminished, as he was
replaced by the new sky god, Ukko. Joukahainen is the most
troublesome character in the creation stories. He is visualized as
an arrogant young man who crashes his sledge with
Väinämöinen. The two gods went on to have a singing
duel in which the old sage defeats the young cub by singing him
into a swamp. Some scholars have suggested that Joukahainen might
represent some sort of primeval chaos defeated by the order
represented by Väinämöinen.
Lemminkäinen or Kaukomieli (Far-Looker) is visualized as a
good looking young man. He is associated with fertility, love, fire
and shamanistic magic as he could "sing the sand into pearls".
During one of his trips to Tuonela, Lemminkäinen tries to
shoot the Swan of Tuonela that swims in the dark waters of River of
Tuonela. Since killing swans was a taboo for Finnish pagans,
Lemminkäinen gets unlucky, falls into the dark current and is
slashed to pieces by the Tuonen verinen poika (The Bloody Son of
Tuonela). His mother searches for his son and uses a rake to pick
up the pieces of his body from the river. She uses magic and salve
from Ukko, brought by a bee, to resurrect Lemminkäinen back to
life.
Other important gods were the major spirits that ruled natural
places. These spirits were sometimes called "kings". For example,
the king of the water was Ahti, from whom fishers asked for good
luck in fishing. The king or god of the forest was called Tapio.
With his wife, Mielikki, Tapio ruled the forest and all of its
plants, animals and spiritual entities. Hunters made offerings and
prayed for Tapio before the hunt. Animals and plants also had elder
ancestral spirits that were called emuu. Their function was to look
after the well-being of their "sons" and "daughters". For example
the emuu of bears was called Hongotar and every time a bear was
killed, people prayed and sacrificed to Hongotar, reassuring her
that they didn't kill her son needlessly.
Different environments, places, beings and even humans had their
own guardian spirits, called haltija. In natural places, the
spirits were thought to form groups of spiritual power called
väki. For example, in water there was the väki of water
and in fire, the väki of fire. When something was thought to
be spiritually powerful it was called väkevä (strong).
The different väki guarded their own areas, and might get
upset if proper respectful behavior was not practiced. For example
when someone cursed near a lake the väki of the water might
infect him with disease.
Pekko or Pellonpekko (Pekko of the fields) was the god who seed
the plants and forests of the world. He was called to bring luck
when the fields were cultivated. Pekko was regarded as being the
god of agriculture and grain. He was especially closely associated
to barley. Thus, he was also also the god of ale, the sacred drink
of ancient Finns.
Communities had their own local haltija, who was collectively
worshipped in holy places like sacred groves. Families, buildings,
landed property and fields also had their own haltija or guardian
spirit. The function of these entities was to protect, to bring
prosperity and fertility. Sometimes guardian spirits might act
against another house and steal their goods or move landmarks.
Haltija warned people in the household for incoming disaster by
appearing to them. In the yard or inside the house, there was
usually some specific place that was used as an altar for offerings
and sometimes as a place for the haltija to dwell in. Very often
this place was a holy tree or rock (napakivi) that was located in
the yard. To ensure to kindness and helpfulness of the guardian
spirits, people gave them offerings. Angry haltija might cause
accidents and be extremely dangerous.
It is speculated that in many cases, local guardian spirits were
originally ancestral spirits. In some cases, the haltija was
considered to be the spirit of the first inhabitant of the house.
When building a new house people tried to attract haltija to the
place by using special rituals and charms. A local nature spirit
might become the guardian of the newly build house.
- SOULS
-
The ancient Finns believed that people had multiple souls or
soul-entities. One of these was henki which could be translated as
spirit, breath, soul, ghost, or life. Henki was the life-force
which resided in the body of a human being, manifesting itself in
breathing and warmth of the living body. The original word for
henki was löyly which nowadays means the hot air in sauna.
Losing one's löyly was fatal to the person.
Itse-soul was thought to be the actual "me" of the human being,
the social concept of oneself and manifestation of individual's
self-image. In modern Finnish itse is a pronoun for "myself". Itse
was visualized as the shadow or a mirror image of a person. One
could also lose one's itse, this catastrophe rendered the person
itsetön (itse-less). An "itsetön" person was sickly,
pale, depressed and unlucky. Soul-loss might also cause the person
to become paralytic, epileptic or alcoholic. The ways to lose itse
included oath-breaking and alcoholism. Sometimes the ghosts of
already deceased loved ones might lure person's itse to come with
them to Tuonela while person was still alive. It was the job of the
local tietäjä or seer to return the person's soul.
Each person also had their own guardian spirit or, sometimes,
even several spirits. People gained their haltija called Luonto
around the the time they had their first tooth, or when they were
given their name. In modern Finnish Luonto has influenced to words:
luonne (person's character) and luonto (nature, as in sense of the
environment). Person with powerful Luonto also had a strong
character. He or she was competent in both everyday and spiritual
matters and generally successful in life.
Luonto was probably considered to be connected with the person's
dead kin that resided in Tuonela. Sometimes Luonto was thought to
be the mythical first ancestor of one's family line. Luonto
followed person around protecting him and bringing luck. In
Christian times Luonto was transformed to the Christian idea of
guardian angel.
Sometimes Luonto might travel ahead of a person and give the
people at his destination the false sensation that the person had
already arrived. This was called etiäinen. It was assumed that
people with strong character and charisma caused a lot of these
experiences. So, etiäinen was generally regarded as a positive
or neutral thing. On the other hand, the same thing in reverse, a
sensation of a person's Luonto lurking around when the person had
already gone on their way, was considered extremely bad thing. It
usually meant that this person was about to die or face some
serious accident and the soul was unwilling to follow him.
When Luonto was specially needed one might command it to raise
from lovi (deep place, meaning Tuonela) using an incantation. When
Luonto took control of a person he became passionate, fanatic and
sometimes frenzied. If person committed extremely evil acts or
suffered sudden trauma their Luonto might become frightened and
leave the person leaving him luckless, sick and depressed.
Besides henki, itse and Luonto, person might also have other
personal helpers who brought prosperity and luck to their masters.
These helpers included entities like tonttu and para, a created
little helper, perhaps of the sort of a homunculus.
Tietäjä might have animal spirit helpers such as lievo
(raven) and snakes whose physical counterparts the
tietäjä kept as pets.
- DEATH
-
Person's death was followed by a 30-40 day long transition
period while itse-soul searched for a route to Tuonela and its
place there. During this time, the soul might visit its loved ones
in the form of a ghost or animal. This was especially the case,
when the person was unhappy with his life on earth or the
circumstances surrounding his death. After the transition period,
the soul moved permanently to Tuonela. He might still return, if he
was unpleased with something. Some of the dead never settled in
Tuonela, but continued to haunt the living. This was usually the
case, when person was murdered or he had committed suicide.
Dead relatives in Tuonela were honored with sacrifices. The
places where the sacrifice rituals took place, were called hiisi.
Although people were afraid of ghosts, the dead members of one's
kin were respected, as the family was considered a unit including
both the living and the dead members. The dead protected and helped
their living relatives and they were often counseled for help.
Tietäjä was sometimes sent to Tuonela to retrieve age-old
information from the dead, or even sometimes to bring a dead person
back to life to work as his helper spirit.
- TIETÄJÄ - SEER, HEALER AND SHAMAN
-
It is generally assumed that in Iron Age Finland people had
established the practice of seers called tietäjä
(knowledgeable person). Väinämöinen was considered
the first tietäjä and the god of seers and healers. Each
community had their own tietäjä who used his skills to
help the community, for example by healing the sick. It is thought,
that the role of a Finnish tietäjä was developed from the
earlier practice of shamanism. However, tietäjä was not
necessarily the same as shaman, because during the Iron Age, their
everyday practice lacked several features essential to the shamanic
traditions of Siberian tribes or Saami people. For example, a
Finnish tietäjä normally used his sacred incantations for
curing diseases, rather than spirit journeys to the underworld.
To to be successful the tietäjä had to know the mythic
syntysanat (birth words) for different natural phenomena, animals,
materials and other things. These words were ancient wisdom,
probably retrieved from the spirit of some dead shaman in Tuonela
ages ago. Syntysanat or synty was a mythological narrative on how a
certain thing had born into existence. It also explained how the
thing had changed to reach the point or form it was in now. When
used as incantations, birth words gave tietäjä the
ability to control many things and in this way to alter the
surrounding reality.
Diseases were thought to be caused by malicious spiritual
entities or hostile witches. Tietäjä defeated diseases by
using a incantations. The sick were often treated in sauna.
Tietäjä tried to return the sickness-entity back to where
it had come from. For example, a disease caused by water spirits
was ordered to leave the patient and return to water. There was
also a mythic character called Kipu-tyttö (Pain-girl) who
lived on kipumäki (pain-hill) and caused people pain. During
healing tietäjä asked her to leave and to take the pains
away from the patient to kipukivi (pain-rock) because "rock doesn't
cry about its pains, boulder doesn't groan about its ailments".
Skillful tietäjä could also stop blood flowing from open
wound by ordering it to do so with the right words.
Finnish tietäjä-folk were widely respected and feared
in the neighboring regions during the Viking Age - and even long
after that. In the Norse sagas Finns always appear as powerful
wizards and feared masters of the supernatural. According to later
tales, foreign seafarers bought from Finns ropes tied in knots. By
opening the knot a bit, a seaman could raise a wind to make his
ship go faster. However, opening it too fast would raise a
storm.
- SACRED ANIMALS
-
Finnish mythology holds several animals to be sacred. There are
traces of a ancient bear cult and bear was certainly a highly
respected animal and often even regarded to be elder kin to humans.
Some folk poems state that the god Ilmarinen was the father of bear
and that bear was born in the sky near the Big Dipper from were it
was descended to the earth. When bear was killed there was a
celebration to honor it called karhunpeijaiset. One function of the
feast was to make sure that spirit of the bear would be born again
in the woods and that it held no grudge about the killing. Elk was
also considered to be sacred and it was connected to
Väinämöinen who is told to have ride the mythical
Sininen hirvi (Blue Elk).
Many water birds were also sacred to the ancient Finns. It was
taboo to kill them, especially swans. In the Finnish mythology
birds are prominent in the stories about the creation of the world.
In some areas it was believed that sielulintu (soul-bird) brought
the soul to the new-born child and took it away in death.
- COSMOLOGY
-
The cosmology of the ancient Finns was similar to that of the
neighboring peoples. The earth was thought to be located on a flat
disc. There is no direct evidence of this belief, but other better
known facts of the Finnish cosmic world view leave no other choice.
Ancient beliefs state that the earth was covered by the giant dome
of sky. The dome was supported by the world pole that was attached
to Polaris. The star was called taivaannaula (sky-nail) and it was
thought to be working like a nail to cuff the world pole into the
sky. The world pole was located far in the north and its roots were
ingrained deep into the earth. There has been a lot of scholarly
speculation that the Sampo, mythic mill grinding prosperity and
wealth and playing essential part in many myths, might actually
indicate the spinning world pole.
Often it was thought that there were several sky-domes piled up
in layers. The world was probably separated into three levels: the
upper world of the gods, the world of the living and the lower land
of the dead called Tuonela. Some people believed that even Tuonela
had several layers. Fixed stars were attached to the sky-dome. The
Sun and the Moon located under the dome and raised and descended
between the sky and earth.
Pohjola (place of the north) was located in the far north. It
was thought to be dark and very cold place ruled by the Mistress of
Pohjola, usually known as Louhi. Pohjola was home to many things
including diseases, frost and misfortunes. The diseases were born
when Loviatar, the blind daughter of Tuoni (the ruler of Tuonela)
was impregnated by the wind. Louhi acted as a midwife while
Loviatar gave birth to nine sons: Consumption, Colic, Gout,
Rickets, Ulcer, Scab, Cancer, Plague and Envy. These diseases were
then send to torment mankind. However, Väinämöinen
fought against them and defeated these diseases with his healing
skills and knowledge. According to folk poetry the realm of Pohjola
is also home to many other weird inhabitants such as sons and
daughters of Louhi, witches and esoteric monsters like
Nuolennoutaja (Retriever of Arrow), Kielen kantaja (Carrier of
Tongue) and Sydämen syöjä (Eater of Heart).
Lintukoto (Bird Home) was strange world located in south or
south-west at the edge of the world where migratory birds spend
winters. Lintukoto was also the home for small lintukotolaiset. The
Milky Way is called in Finnish Linnunrata (Pathway of the Birds) as
it was considered the route that birds followed to Lintukoto and
back. These days lintukoto is used in Finnish as a negation to
imply that some place is no longer the safe, innocent and happy
place it used to be, for example: "Finland is no longer a
lintukoto".
In far north, at the root of the world pole, there was a
gigantic whirlpool called the Kurimuksen kurkku. The whirling of
Kurimus might have caused the world pole to spin with the sky-dome.
This was also the Tuonen koski (Tuonela rapid), one of the many
pathways to the underworld.
Tuonela, (or Manala) was located under the earth. It might have
been the mirror image of the world of the living. The entrance to
this world could be found in bottomless swamps, eddies, caves and
other places. Some people believed that each person had a double, a
Doppelgänger of sort, living in Tuonela to whom one's fate was
firmly connected.
Finnish pagans had several myths concerning the origin of the
world. The most commonly held belief was that the world was born
from a waterfowl's egg. Another common way to explain how
everything came into existence was the earth-diver myth about
arctic loon fetching earth from the bottom of the primeval ocean.
Some stories also tell how the smith hero Ilmarinen forged the
sky-dome.
Folk poems also mention several phenomena relating to the end of
the world as we know it. These include dancing stars, heating of
the Moon and the Sun moving to the north. There are also
eschatological stories about a great catastrophe, great frost,
burning of the world, disease and hunger.
- THE CYCLE OF YEAR AND FESTIVITIES
-
For the ancient Finnish people the cycle of the year was divided
into phases related to agriculture, fishing, hunting and other
work. These phases had their own festivals. Two of the most
important holidays were midsummer and midwinter, which divided the
year into two parts. Harvest feast called kekri was the original
midwinter celebration, but in Christian times it diminished in
importance and many of its characteristics transfered to joulu
(Christmas). Kekri, which meant the last day of the year, was
originally celebrated at early November.
At midsummer the Sun reached the highest point of its course and
seemed to stall there for a while. This week-long period was called
pesäpäivät (nest days), for it was thought that the
Sun was resting in its nest. Pesäpäivät was
considered to be eerie and magical time since the border between
the world of the living and the world of the dead was then at its
most thinnest. The same thing happened during midwinter, as the Sun
was at the another extreme point of its yearly course. The time
from midwinter to midsummer was considered "raising" time, and from
midsummer to midwinter time was thought to "decline".
Vakkajuhlat (basket celebration) was a sacrificial celebration
which the whole county attended. They were held in sacred groves.
Basketful of food was given as an offering to the gods and people
drank sacred beer, brewed especially for the event. Vakkajuhlat
might involve ritualistic kneeling in a circle and dancing.
Households regarded the duty to host Vakkajuhlat as a great honor,
and the guests never had to brought any food with them. Ukonvakat
(Ukko's baskets) was held around 25th of May to honor Ukko. The
purpose of this feast was to ensure good weather from the god for
the sowing time. During the celebration people drank special toast
to Ukko.
The world view of the Finnish pagans had concepts like the
beginning of the world and development of world in time. Their
concept of time was therefore not cyclical. Future ages were
predicted, although it is perhaps interesting to note that
Finno-Ugric languages have no future tense. When Christianity came
to Finland the pagan heroes such as Väinämöinen were
told to have gone away, but it was also predicted that they would
some day return to help their people during dire times.
- HOLY PLACES
-
Pyhä, the Finnish word for holy and sacred, originally
meant something inside a closed enclosure reserved for special use,
such as arable land. The inside of a household or yard might have
also included special sense of holiness that was contrasted with
the dangers of outside world. Sacred groves (hiisi) sometimes
included fenced area into which no human being was allowed to
enter. Instead, people threw their sacrifices over the fence.
Person, who offended against the holiness of the place, gained the
wrath of the spirits and the dead. Hiisi was originally the place
where communities and families buried their dead, and later prayed
and made offerings for them. After Christianity came, the meaning
of the word hiisi changed, as it started to mean demons or rugged
and scary places.
Offerings were left on specific stones called uhrikivi
(sacrifice stone). These stones were regarded as altars or abodes
for guardian spirits and lesser gods. Later the stones were used as
altars for Christian saints. Often there was a pit carved to the
stone where the offering was placed. Rain water collected from the
pit was considered to be powerful in healing. In folk poems, pains
and problems were sometimes commanded to the pit with a
incantation. Some scholars have suggested that pit was made when
person died so his soul could enter Tuonela through it. Thus, by
placing offerings into the pit people were communicating with the
spirit of the dead. Other places for sacrificial acts included holy
trees (especially rowan) and oases.
THE MODERN REVIVAL
Above I have presented a simplified outline of Finnish pagan
beliefs and customs. I had to leave a lot of things unmentioned for
the sake of brevity, but even from this short introduction, it
should have become clear that Finland has a complex and very rich
mythology and has had a unique pagan tradition. For that reason it
never ceases to amaze me, how few and hard to come by Finnish
pagans are these days. There may well be more Finnish people
practicing Greco-Roman paganism then there are people following the
path of their indigenous spirituality!
Luckily, things seem to be changing now. During the last few
years there have been considerable increase in the visibility of
the followers of Finnish neopaganism on the Internet. Nowadays we
have an lively discussion forum for people interested in Finnish
paganism and few organizations and informational sites are also in
the process of being created. Perhaps the greatest challenge now is
to get solitary practitioners together to strengthen their pagan
identity and to exchange ideas so that Finnish paganism might grow
and be able to resist the pressure coming from the realities of
secular society and hostile religions.
Many Finnish people find it hard to fully embrace the faith of
their ancestors. They claim that we just don't know enough about
Finnish paganism to make it a living tradition. I disagree with
this. We have information. What people are really saying is that
there is no dogma, no universally accepted doctrine of Finnish
paganism. Instead we have a collection of varying and sometimes
conflicting beliefs and customs. In my opinion, this is what it
should be, paganism is all about plurality, local traditions and
personal beliefs, not holy books and heretics. Paganism is by its
very nature organic, tolerant and undogmatic. And besides, both
Lithuanian Romuva and Estonian Maausko have succeeded in creating a
strong, living tradition from their ancestral traditions which
happen to be somewhat closely related to ours.
There are certain modern things that alien to our indigenous
world view, but that can creep into Finnish neopaganism and slowly
destroy it from within. One of these things is racism and overly
politicized nationalism. Another is the instinct of people, who
have been brought up in society where Christian ideas and values
are repeated every day, to consciously or unconsciously project
these foreign concepts to paganism. Just by changing the name of
one's God to Ukko, while living and thinking the same way as always
doesn't really make one a pagan. Third alien thing to Finnish
paganism is universalism and mental "new ageism". One can't take
parts of our ancestors spiritual tradition and mix them up with
different things from different traditions and expect that the end
product would be meaningful, functional religion and world view. It
is my firm belief that any tradition should be studied, lived and
treated as a whole. Not as collection of pick-and-choose -ideas for
people to take and mangle as parts of their own supposedly deep
copy-paste -religions.
Yet another way to get paganism wrong is to overemphasize the
nature-aspect. Finnish paganism wasn't primitive Earth-worship. In
fact, the goddess Maaemoinen (Earth mother) appears only as a minor
deity in the folk poems. There is a big misconception that paganism
can be simplified and reduced to some kind of spiritualism based
around mere biological nature. The reality of ancient pagan faiths,
including Finnish paganism, doesn't support this simplistic and
modern idea.
I would like to end this piece with a positive example. As I
stated before, the pagans in Finland's southern neighbor, Estonia,
have already managed to restore their indigenous religion into a
strong, living tradition. Estonia might be claimed to be most pagan
nation in Europe. A survey made in 2002 found out that 11% of the
Estonian participants said that they personally regard their
indigenous pagan religion as the spiritual path most closest to
them. In 2003 the Estonian president even proposed that there
should be a pagan shrine, hiisi, build in the center of their
capital Tallinn!
So naturally, we, Finnish pagans should draw inspiration from
the example of our beloved neighbors and try to learn from them as
much as we can!
LINKS
The Ancient Religions of the Finns
Wikipedia: Finnish
Paganism
Wikipedia: Finnish
Mythology
The Ancient Finnish
Myths
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