Vappu - the Finnish Purim

The title is misleading, as Finland does not celebrate Purim or otherwise officially appreciate the stories why Purim is celebrated. But right now, I am merely referring to the general festival atmosphere that takes over Finland on May Day, much like Israel goes costumes in Purim.

I've seen a glimpse of Purim in Eilat, when I found it amusing that the sales person in GAP was wearing Mickey Mouse ears. Funny. The Finnish Vappu is also about getting your masquerade gear on, buying helium-filled balloons, loud plastic whistles or horns, wearing wigs and whatnot. The tivoli is in town, fixed amusement parks open their doors, the summer is on the brink.

Unlike Purim, the Finnish Vappu has no official root in any religion or bible - albeit its name is derived nowadays from a German abbess. It used to be, once again, a pagan party that over the years evolved in Finland to the working class' day to celebrate in quite formal settings, until the public and especially students adopted it and turned it to an excuse to get wasted.

I can think of two Jewish holidays that in some sort encourage to consume alcohol: one of them indeed is Purim, and the other one is Passover. A lot of cups of wine involved in both of them. Finns don't need Talmud or any other formal reason to get wasted - it is enough to find a reason or to make up one.

The church has never been a source or inspiration for the use of spiritus fortus, except the tiny shot of wine given at communion. In fact, none of the main Finnish drinking festivals can be associated with today's religious holidays: I already explained what's behind May Day, and another time when only a handful of people would be in driving condition in Finland is Midsummer in June, which is originally a pagan festivity (and later moved by the church to the birthday of John - Johannes - which explains the Finnish name Juhannus for the party). The ancient Finns, however, did believe that being drunk and noisy in Midsummer will drive bad spirits away - and still implement this belief in practice.

Whatever the reason, I'm sure both countries host a nice carnival feeling whether it is Vappu or Purim. What you can count on in Vappu is that the weather will be crap. Nonetheless, I've got my costume ready for tomorrow :-).

And PS. isn't it a bit disturbing how many pagan festivals the Christian belief has just adopted and/or moved and turned Christian?

The gay "Marry Me"

It was not a long time ago I wrote here about the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest and Finland's poor success in this merry musical event. But now out of the blue, a parody video of her song has been made - also to reflect a very hot topic currently in Europe related to the title of the song: yes, it's a gay version of Krista's "Marry me"!

Awesome, but what makes it even more awesome, the video was made by an Israeli and a Swiss guy. This is not their first time when using Finland's ESC participants as a source of inspiration - they did a similar video in 2010.

Check out the latest made by the Parody Guys Dekel Ben Avi and Bastien Venturi's and look for glimpses of Helsinki and Tel Aviv! There's no such thing as bad publicity and since 150 volunteers participated in making this video, let's hope this video boosts Krista's success in the upcoming contest! Love is in the air :-)...

PS. Is the onion ring a common joke in Israel? I think I heard it before!

Got to appreciate stereotypes!

Have you ever come across the little book series called Xenophobe's guides? I have, and have two editions - guess which ones? ;-)

The Israeli version I have read through twice, first time last summer. The Finn version I read yesterday for the first time and actually laughed out loud. People on the same airplane turned around to see why I was so noisy (like typical Finns would do).

Usually I am not a big fan of stereotypes, probably because I like to consider myself as a non-typical Finn: I don't like the sauna or summer cottages. I don't go silent in all five languages, I do master smalltalk and use body language and facial expressions when communicating. Even though the Xenophobe's guide to the Finns touches upon these features I don't recognize in myself, the book offered me moments where I had to be honest to myself: alas, this is so true, this is how I am. How spot on.

What about the Israeli one? The great thing about the book is that it actually talks about Israelis - not necessarily pin-pointing Jews. It manages to go where I have not been able to go yet: define what is Israel, who is an Israeli and who is a Jew. Because an Israeli doesn't always equal Jew or Jew an Israeli.

These books are highly recommended reading if you're interested to know about the people in a country. Not where to get good lunch or what are the most important sights, but who make up the country to what is is!

Shiksas keep out

It was Friday afternoon, I had worked until 6pm again and felt really bored with all that... Playing around with my mobile phone on the subway before hitting the bar to have a drink with friends, I tuned in for the daily Times of Israel newsletter and noticed this ad:

Exactly what was needed to catch my attention. My imagination started galloping... why not enter this contest - what's the worst thing that could happen? One year in Israel, working for one of these companies, learning the language, getting a real taste of the culture (so I'd actually know what I'm talking about here), and a perfect getaway and wake-up call from the ever-so-dull routine I have developed back home. I could rent out my apartment for one year, no biggie, and IBM, KPMG or the likes of them would not look bad on my resumé either.

Before I texted "let's try this out!!!" to my Finnish friend who is an Israel fan, I started reading the details of the contest. My enthusiasm took a nose-dive from 100 to 0, when the rules for the contestants were:

• Must be Jewish or of Jewish descent.
• Must be a citizen of the US or Canada.

My first reaction was that this is discrimination - something I'm not really used when living in Finland and belonging to the boring majority of people here. "This is my Israel"? More like that is their Israel, shiksas from the 236th tribe keep out. Landing a dream job in Israel is not for you.

Then I started thinking that the newspaper and newsletter are probably not really targeted to the likes of me to begin with. That ad was never meant for my eyes to be seen and to be misunderstood that it is not for everybody but concerns North American Jews who are thinking of aliyah.

Well, never mind, it was not meant to be. After a mojito and catching up with friends, things didn't seem so grim after all. There are other dreams and jobs out there.

(View the contest here.)

A museum visit in Norway

My Scandinavian tour of Jewish museums is complete. Last weekend I got to tick off the last country off my list: Norway. Established in a building that used to be a synagogue, the Jewish Museum of Oslo is located conveniently in the center. You can recognize the museum from its iron gate so be brave, buzz the door bell and enter. Entrance tickets are reasonably priced (50 NOK for adults).

Unfortunately, it was not allowed to photograph inside, but basically the museum has two aspects that you could expect it to have: the other aspect tells the story of Jews in Norway during WWII and the occupation, and the other is a classic story of a Jewish year, explaining all related holidays. Nearly everything was translated into English, for those who do not know any Norwegian or other Scandinavian languages.

The day that we (yes, my boyfriend joined!) visited the museum was no ordinary day... There was a "family Sunday" arranged around Pesach. There was a play by local teens telling the story of Moses and Exodus, and activities around the Seder dinner and plate for kids: coloring, cutting out and pasting paper maror etc. on a paper Seder, and a tasting menu of matza and the rest that you can find on a Seder plate. A note was given to typically Scandinavian kids: charoset cannot be eaten by those who are allergic to nuts (because all the kids in the Nordics are allergic to something!). The museum was rather packed because of this event, and it was quite endearing and heart-warming to see such a small but tight community getting together for the holiday season.

A snapshot of the museum's website about Family Sunday - Pesach.

It was interesting to read about what went on in Norway during the WWII. All the Nordic countries had very different destinies during this war. Sweden remained untouched, Finland messed with the Germans but kept Finnish-Jews safe and Denmark and Norway were occupied. It was shocking to learn that prison/labor camps were established in Norway and Jewish prisoners were under more harsh treatment in these places. So the camps weren't just in Poland and elsewhere in Central Europe - also here in the Nordics. Many Norwegian Jews fled to Sweden, but nearly 800 Jews were murdered - for the most part in Auschwitz. Those who fled to Sweden or beyond, often chose not to return.

The Norwegian government cooperated with the Nazi regime as the Norwegian Royal Family left for exile during the war. Jewish families were not allowed to own radios, their IDs were stamped with the letter "J" and as mentioned, possessions were confiscated and many ended up dying at concentration camps. Today, the community has been revived with somewhat 1500s Jews in Norway that are well integrated in the society, however the Chabad-Lubavitch has a permanent presence in Norway.

The building served as a synagogue until 1942. Outside the museum, there are metal placates on the ground with names of those Jews who lived in the area and were sent to Auschwitz.

If I had to rank the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish Jewish museums, I'd say the Norwegian one is the best and most comprehensive one. There's also a great gift shop with many Jewish items. Unfortunately, though, I have seem to come 100% with Judaica and Jewish items, since I could not find anything that I didn't have to buy at the gift shop!

As there was nothing new to add to my souvenir collection, I took the recipe for Natascha's blintzes :-).

PS. An interesting tidbit I learnt while visiting this museum was the vague connection between astrology and Judaism. The Kabbalah is into astrology, and the Zodiac signs almost seem to sync better with the Jewish calendar months better than the Gregorian months... I always wondered why Capricorn isn't 1st-31st of January but overlaps from December to January etc.

Eager ivrit student

I (אני) can't begin describing how studying (לומדת) Hebrew (עברית) has saved my life (חיים) last autumn and this spring. Even though the language classes (שיעורים) sometimes are a source of temporary moments of intense frustration, looking back I am so happy and glad to see how I have progressed from zero knowledge to what (מה) I know (יודעת) now (עכשיו). The classes have also (גם) been a form of therapy for me amongst busy working life, taking my thoughts off from all the work things I should not be wasting my time thinking when outside the office.

Now I can in Hebrew tell a bit about myself, order simple stuff in a restaurant (מסעדה), ask and tell the time (מה השעה) and make simple questions and sentences. In Hebrew - the language that made no sense to me not so many months ago! I even installed a Hebrew keyboard to my cell phone (פלאפון) so I can sometimes surprise my boyfriend (חבר) by WhatsApping him in Hebrew.

When the course started, we were about 25 eager students (סטודנטים). Those with not enough time or motivation have dropped out and a bit over 10 (עשר) is left. This remaining group is so into the language that together we bought extra classes for the spring. And I already pre-enrolled for the next course starting in September.

There's still a long way to go before I could add Hebrew to my LinkedIn profile as a skill. Maybe (אולי) a four (ארבע) week summer holiday in a kibbutz (קיבוץ) in Israel (בישראל) would take me to that level?

I wonder, though, how well do the Jews in diaspora know Hebrew or is it just the sabras of Israel that know it well? Do e.g. Finnish Jews speak fluent Hebrew?