Finnish Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sauna

A sauna is the place where you throw water on a sauna stove filled with rocks, and water rises up as steam to make the sauna heat up. Usually a sauna can be as hot as 85-90 degrees Celsius. In olden days women gave birth in saunas, and it was known that illnesses were cured in saunas.

In saunas people were cupped, to let "bad blood" out of the body, taking illnesses and bad spirits out of the body.

Answer: Vappu

Vappu, in English May Day, is celebrated on May the 1st. It is the feast of spring, graduates and the working class. The usual decorations include balloons, streamers and other carnival decorations. On May Day people drink mead, which is a mild alcoholic beverage made of honey, water and yeast, and some people put raisins in it.
Other festive foods on this day are funnel breads, doughnuts, potato salads and frankfurters (which are usually first boiled in water before eating).

Answer: Nimipäivä

Nimipäivä, or Name Day, is something every person has on a certain day. For example on December 24th is Eeva's name day (comparison to the name Eve), and December 31st is Sylvester's name day.
Of course there are names that do not have a name day, so usually a family has that person's name day on the day they were christened.

Answer: Suomalaiset

97% of people living in Finland are Finnish (suomalaiset).
0,16% are Swedish (ruotsalaiset).
0,47% are Russian (venäläiset).
0,29% are Estonian (virolaiset).
The largest minority groups in Finland are Swedish-speaking-Finns, Roma People and the Sami people.

Answer: Lappi

Even though some people think Santa lives in the North Pole, in reality he lives in Lappi (Lapland), in Korvatunturi.
There are two places where you can meet Santa, at Santa Park and Santa's workshop in Rovaniemi.

Answer: Kumisaappaat

There are Nokia rubber boots, the best known brand of rubber boots in Finland. One of our Finnish "games" is Saappaanheitto (throwing the rubber boot), sometimes referred to as Nokian heitto (which some people think at first to be throwing the mobile phone).

Answer: "Maamme"

The song was composed by Fredrik Pacius (in 1848), the lyrics are originally by Julius Krohn (in 1867).
The Estonian national anthem is the same melody with pretty similar lyrics.
"Vårt Land" is "Maamme"-song in Swedish. And "Muumimamma" of course is a character in "Moomins".

Answer: Juhannus

Juhannus, midsummer, is the celebration of the nightless night in June, near summer solstice.
Finns have different traditions that are still very much alive today. On midsummer night young girls collect seven different flowers and put them under their pillows at night. This would show their future husband in their dream.
Some gaze into a well, and their future husband's face would appear in the water. And some run through a rye field with only a wisp of hay tied around their waist.

Answer: Sauna, Sisu & Sibelius

And old saying, what keeps us Finns going, are Sauna, Sisu ja Sibelius!
You already know what a sauna is.
Suomalainen Sisu, stamina of Finns that keeps us going.
And Sibelius, perhaps the most wellknown Finnish composer.

Answer: Turku

Before Helsinki became the capital of Finland, when we were under the rule of Sweden, the capital was Turku. But once Finland was lost to the Soviet Union, the Russians forced us to change the capital to Helsinki, so it wouldn't be as close to Sweden, as Turku is.