#Finnish Christmas songs

[nei-ning]

In Finland our Christmas songs are 99% about gloom, misery, life has kicked your ass, your family has abandon you or they have died, you go to their grave, you celebrate Christmas alone (either drunk or not) etc. No joy of any kind, ever.

Today I heard another horrible Finnish Christmas song. The song started like this:

A child finds his / her father dead on the snow, at the park. Police comes to inform them about this later. Their house is cold because their electricity has been cut off.

That was enough and I shut the Christmas radio...

[suometar]

Merry Christmas 🎄

[anabetel35]

A little piece for an AU where Aziraphale isn’t exactly the guardian of the Eastern gate — not in practice, anyways — but guards a gate, at least, if what he does can be called guarding, heaven doesn’t really have a representative on Earth (yet), the serpent of Eden might not actually be a demon, but rather something a little different, and where the Bookshop and even a small cottage are still a few mistakes and centuries down the line.

(It’s all a WIP for now, still in the brainstorming phase, actually. I’ve got one other fic I need to finish before jumping into this. Plus, this is going to be a bit… seasonal, one might say :) )

[dick-chugger]

All right, it's officially Christmas Eve aka the day we celebrate Christmas in Finland. So here's the most beautiful Finnish Christmas song for you guys.

Also a quick warning: This song contains themes of death and religion.

Varpunen jouluaamuna / Sparven om julmorgonen / Sparrow on Christmas Morning

[niuniente]

Oh wow. You know how Finnish Christmas songs (as the Christmas itself) are very melancholic and downright depressive? How many songs are about death and misery, how the agony will arrive after Christmas again and how much I miss my dead parents/spouse? How the suffering never ends, except for a few days in Christmas?

I just heard the worst Christmas song ever, even in Finnish standards. In the song, a little girl is hiding, crying. Her parents are drunk and fighting. They have knocked over the Christmas tree. The little girl takes her little brother and leaves home because she can’t stand being there anymore. While they walk outside, neglected and abused, the little girl thinks “Okay, parents: Now you can drink as much as you like and be as drunk as you ever want. You can throw up on yourself so that the vomit ripples down from your chests. I don’t care anymore”.

I’m listening the song and how every single sentence just makes it worse and worse and... WOW. I don’t really like or need THAT much of gritty realism in Christmas songs.

[ruuhkaaika]

one thing that will break the family apart

what are good christmas songs..? what even is considered a christmas song

[neroushalvaus]

Koska niistä joululauluista on tullut nyt puhuttua, tässä on vähän mun omia suosikkeja, jos etsitte kuunneltavaa jouluunne:

Taivas sylissäni (säv. Carola Häggkvist suom. Pia Perkiö). Suosittelen Suvi Teräsniskan laulamana.

Marian ajatuksia, kun hän pitää vastasyntynyttä poikalastaan sylissään. "Olet aarre sydänten / Miten sinut suojelen? / Helmassani kantaa / itse taivastako saan?"

Seimiyö (säv. Olli Ahvenlahti san. Tommy Tabermann). Spotifyssa Johanna Iivanaisen versio, mutta youtubessa myös Johanna Kurkelan versio on aika ihana.

Tommy Tabermannin runoon sävelletty laulu. "Olemalla kynttilöitä toisilleen / eivät ihmiset / koskaan kulje täällä yksikseen"

Oi jouluyö / O helga natt (säv. Adolphe Adamin, suom. Kyllikki Solanterä ruots. Augustin Koch)

Tästä tärkein kohta on se neljäs "oi jouluyö", joka menee mukavan korkealle. Muista siis kuunnella mahdollisimman mahtavalla tenoriäänellä. Ruotsiksi kuunnellessa Jussi Björling on klassikkovalinta.

Joululaulu (säv. Konsta Jylhä san. Paul Holm)

Jeesus lohduttaa äitinsä haudalla surevaa lasta. "Joulun ensimmäisen / mä olla tallissa härkien sain / Sinne tähtöset tuikkivat valkeuttaaan / Sinne saapuivat tietäjät maan / Sitä taas viettämään / sinun kanssasi jään / Sinun joulusi kauniiksi teen / Sinä huomata saat / surun laaksot ja maat / voivat peittyä kirkkauteen"

Pieni taivaan enkeli (säv. Pekka Simojoki san. Anna-Mari Kaskinen). Tätä ei ole spotifyssa, mutta youtubesta löysin tosi ihania versioita.

Pieni taivaan enkeli pyytää Jumalalta lupaa mennä kertomaan koko maailmalle, että Jeesus on syntynyt. Tää on niin suloinen ja hellä biisi, varsinkin lapset liikuttuvat.

Sylvian joululaulu (säv. Karl Collan san. Sakari Topelius). Oikean mahtipohtisuuden tavoittaa ainakin Jarkko Ahola.

Tässä on sitä oikeaa joulun dramatiikkaa. Paatosta ainakin riittää. "Ja Etnanpa kaukaa mä kauniina nään / Ah, tää kaikki hurmaa ja huumaapi pään".

Tää ei oo se joulu (säv. trad san. Hector)

Mä haluan pistää yhden surkeusosaston kappaleen, niin voin sanoa sen tehneeni. "On seimessä lapsi / viaton, viluissaan / Ei näy enkeleitä / raunion varjot vaan / Kun taas pyhään yöhön / ohjukset pisaroi / Uuteen surmatyöhön / valtiaat käydä voi"

Jouluyön hymni (säv. & san. Pekka Simojoki). Esimerkiksi Jipulla on kaunis versio tästä.

Tässä on vain niin valloittavan kauniit sanat. "Soi huurteessa helinä huilun / Niin kirkas on tähtinen yö / Hän kulkenut on yli kuilun / Maa taivaalle kättä nyt lyö"

Tulkoon joulu (säv. & san. Pekka Simojoki). Kyllä ainakin kerran joulussa pitää katsoa se youtubesta löytyvä Raskasta Joulua -musiikkivideo.

On tää vaan hieno. Hitti ripareilla kesät talvet. "Pääsköön vangit vankiloistaan" pitäis olla taglinena jos Christians For Prison Abolition perustais Suomi-osaston

Suutari ja vieras (säv. & san. Pekka Ruuska). Samuli Edelmann laulaa tän aika ihanasti, siinä on juuri oikea lempeä energia.

Vanha suutari odottaa Jeesusta jouluvieraaksi kotiinsa, mutta vastaanottaakin kolme muuta vierasta. Lopuksi hän kysyy Jeesukselta, miksi tämä ei tullutkaan, ja Jeesus antaa yllättävän vastauksen.

[girafferoyalty]

Happy St. Stephen’s Day! Being very much a Christmas person, I felt like doing some doodles based on Finnish Christmas songs.

The first one is inspired by Kettu ja tähti (the Fox and the Star), which places the nativity scene in the northern Finnish scenery. The song mentions the Northern Lights, which in Finnish are called “foxfires”, based on an ancient belief that they were made by the tail of a giant fiery fox.

The second one is based on Sylvian joululaulu (The Christmas Song of the Sylvia), where Sylvia refers to small a bird caged in Sicily, who sings about his distant homeland. It is not widely agreed upon which bird the writer meant by “Sylvia”, but some believe he might’ve meant the robin, who was believed to be part of the genus Sylvia.

[misdre]

damn i was today years old when i learned that carol of the bells is ukrainian. the original name is Щедрик.

[wuekka]

12 days of Christmas in finnish is a harem anime song. ("Joulun 12 heilaa"= 12 suitors of Christmas.)

I can see in my mind so clearly a drawing of a woman in 1800-early 1900s clothing with brown hair up and in a red dress, in the middle of 12 men around her looking serene and happy. There could be ladies too because word in the song is gender neutral.

[potatounicoorn]

And naturally all of these songs have an offical heavy metal cover, because what is Finland if not making everything heavy metal

Finnish Christmas song topics

your brother died (Varpunen jouluaamuna)

your mother died (Konsta Jylhän joululaulu)

you are locked in a cage in a foreign country (Sylvian joululaulu)

life sucks and then you die, hi-ho (Hei tonttu-ukot hyppikää)

Baby Jesus freezes to death in the snow while humans stuff their faces indoors (Me käymme joulunviettohon)

Mary looks at Baby Jesus and has a vision of him crucified (Rauhaa, vain rauhaa)

Baby Jesus looks so peaceful on the manger, you know what, soon he will be executed (Heinillä härkien kaukalon)

Christmas elf has an existential crisis (Tonttu)

Bubbling under:

the whole family is drunk at Christmas dinner (Jouluaattona kännissä)

it snowed, it's beautiful, the homeless freeze to death under the bridges (Jos Helsinki on kaunis)

your friend went to war and promised to come back for Christmas, guess what, he's dead (Herra Melperin sotaanlähtö)

it snowed, it's beautiful, well you know what the black rotten leaves are still there waiting for the snow to melt (Musta, niljaisten lehtien kaupunki)

burglars dress up as Santas and rob the house when everyone is visiting relatives (Joulu on juhlista pahin)

[nei-ning]

HORRIBLE CHRISTMAS SONG is playing in the radio! A woman sings (with very happy melody):

"Grandmother wants to die and so do I. Maybe someday elves hear our wishes, too." AND "Try to forget everyday worry while placing a candle on your sister's grave with frozen fingers."

Yep, welcome to Finland where we know NO HAPPY SONGS. Everything here is ALWAYS about dying, darkness and misery. No wonder we have so much mental health issues here...

The song is called Vuoden Pimein Yö by Maustetytöt. I can already say I hate this song.

[halipula-aika]

Okay I've seen enough "Christmas should include more existential dread" type posts on my dash to physically need to talk about Heinillä härkien kaukalon and why it is the best hymn ever if you want to feel sad about baby Jesus.

So this epitome of depressing Finnish holiday songs isn't actually Finnish in origin; it's a translation of Entre le bœuf et l’âne gris, a French song from the 16th century. It was adapted into Finnish in 1926. I say adapted instead of translated here, because the Finnish version has an EXTREMELY DIFFERENT vibe.

The first verses are very similar in both French and Finnish. Like, here's the French translated literally:

Between the ox and the grey donkey / Sleeps, sleeps, sleeps the little son

A thousand divine angels, a thousand seraphim / Fly around this great God of love.

And here's the Finnish:

On the hay, in the bulls' trough / Sleeps an innocent Child. The path of a flock of angels / Soon leads to Him / To marvel at the greatest Love

The next two verses are the same shit in both languages. There's "in the arms of Mary/the mother", and then there's "between roses and lillies". The metaphor used for Jesus changes a bit so it rhymes with the verse, and the thousand angels/great love part is always repeated.

And then. The Finnish translation. Pulls the fucking rug from under you.

The French version has two more verses; you've got "Amidst the gentle shepherds / Sleeps, sleeps Jesus who smiles" and "On this beautiful, so solemn day / Sleeps, sleeps, sleeps Emmanuel". Okay, cool, it's five verses of baby jesus. Great.

The Finnish adaptation only has four verses. And I'd like you to imagine what you have read so far with me. Every time I've heard this hymn, it's sung as almost a lullaby. It's about a baby sleeping in his various aspects: an innocent child, the son of God, the Lord of people. Singing those verses as a fragile lullaby makes sense.

And then in the fourth verse, the choir goes all out, the organist gets to flex how loud they can play, and the church echoes as the last verse is sung:

On the cross beside a criminal / Sleeps the purest sacrifice

The path of a flock of angels / Soon leads to Him / To marvel at the greatest Love

Additional fun facts about the Finnish language: the words for "sacrifice" and "victim" are the same, so you could read this as "the purest sacrifice" or "the cleanest victim".

Merry Christmas!

[kuulyyra]

There's this very sad Finnish Christmas song that tells about a girl who wakes up at Christmas morning and goes outside. She meets a sparrow and gives him seeds since it's cold outside.

At the end of the song it turns out this sparrow is her dead brother. Since it reminded me of Hanzo and Genji, here's something for Christmas. Yes, it is very angsty but the original song is to blame, not me.

[hamarhemmo]

Precisely none of you care but it's Vappu and most of you probably don't know what it is. So let me share some Finnish culture with you guys.

Basically Vappu is a holiday in a few countries but I'm specifically talking about Finnish Vappu. It's basically a mix of May Day and Labour Day and it's one of the biggest holidays in Finland (right after Christmas, Easter and Juhannus). Some people actually call Vappu "Työväenpäivä" which is Finnish for "Workers' Day".

Some Vappu traditions include:

Drinking sima (a type of mead, alcoholic or not)

Wearing graduation caps or overalls

Eating tippaleipä and metrilaku (types of sweets)

Dressing up in costumes

Going to Vapputori (more on that in a bit)

Decorating your house with balloons and serpentine

Buying a Vappupallo (Vappu balloon)

Vappu march for cool leftist girlies

Listening to workers' songs (this may be just my family)

Basically the biggest thing about Vappu is Vapputori (Vappu market). Basically they put up a market in the center of the city and they sell hand-crafted items, metrilaku ("meter liquorice"), doughnuts, and random cheap crap that is probably illegal to sell.

It doesn't usually look this nice because it's always raining on Vappu, but this is what it basically looks like.

Also these are metrilaku, Vappu doughnuts, sima and tippaleipä.

And in my family at least, we eat some slightly fancier food on Vappu. This year we had reindeer, smetana and some dessert by my aunt. It doesn't look vety good but it tastes great.

Also to end this post, my dad told me to link Warszawianka, the workers' song, for you guys:

Happy Vappu / May Day to those who celebrate!

[niuniente]

I love Finnish Christmas songs.