|
|
|
10 Facts About Finland and Travelling Finland
Finland is not a country which may necessarily first come to mind when you are planning to take a holiday or vacation abroad. Finland though is a thoroughly fun and interesting country to visit and below we look at some reasons why and some facts about Finland.
1. Finland invented the Sauna and it is said that over 60 per cent of people have a sauna in their home. Finns take great pleasure in their invention of the sauna and sauna is something taken seriously as a pastime.
2. Finland also seems to produce a very high percentage of racing drivers. Many top rally drivers are often Finns and Formula 1 has also produced a number of well-known Finnish drivers. In recent years, Salo, Raikkonen and Kovalainen are just a few names.
25 Facts About Finland
1. Nokia the worlds leading manufacturer in mobile phones are based in Espoo and generate an annual revenue of 50.7 billion Euro’s.
2. Despite the country having a population of just over 5 million, there are two million guns in Finland.
3. Tampere is twinned with Kiev in the Ukraine and Syracuse in the U.S, amongst others.
Ainola Where Nature Nurtured Notes
The great Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), in reminiscing to Santeri Levas, his personal secretary of his late years (1938-1957), related a strange incident that occurred after he had finished his 5th Symphony. Twelve white swans, after settling on a lake near his home, Ainola, rose up and circled the house three times before flying away. Sibelius came to regard the actions of the swans as auspicious, for his 5th Symphony remains his most performed and most enduringly popular work.
The English composer and conductor, Granville Bantock (1868-1946) claimed: “In the music of the 5th Symphony we are brought face to face with the wild and savage scenery of his native land, the rolling mists and fogs that hover over the rocks, open lakes and fir?clad forests; while in the continuous rumble of the threatening storms and the war’s alarms we are made to feel how the iron has entered the soul of the hard land where winter holds its relentless grip for seven or eight months of the year.”
Ainola was the home of Sibelius from 1904 until his death there in 1957 at the age of 91. The house was named after Aino, his wife, but Aino is also the name of the lyrical maiden figure in Finland’s national epic narrative poem, the Kalevala, which so often served as a source of inspiration for the great composer.
