Where is everybody?

Tonight we are celebrating midsummer here in Finland. "Yötön yö", the nightless night makes us all a bit nuts. The sun never goes down so we continue partying until we drop. And when I say partying, I don't really mean nightclubs. If you are planning to have a city Juhannus (midsummer) you might find yourself wandering along empty streets. So where is everybody?

When Finnish people get some time off they will run into the middle of the forest to get some privacy. Nearly every Finn has a cottage or a friend or family member who does. We enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and our hearts and minds rest when we are staring at the fire, listening to the sound of lapping waves or sitting quietly in the sauna.

The weird thing is how the normally shy Finns are completely fine to be naked in the sauna with (sometimes random) people.
City Juhannus is getting more popular but at the moment cottage life is winning quite clearly.

The picture above is taken at my parents cottage a couple of Juhannus' ago. As you can see, we are walking in the middle of the forest (eaten by mosquitos) and enjoying every second of it. Our dog loves it there also because he can run free and do his cottage stuff... which would be carrying the stones from the bottom of the lake back to the sand and barking in the blueberry bushes. This midsummer will be different since we have our tiny bunnybear. At the moment it's a bit too cold and rainy for her to enjoy the cottage life so we decided to stay in the city instead and spend it with friends (indoors).

The most important tradition in Finnish Juhannus is the weather. It's always terrible. We make fun of it by posting weather meme's on social media where people are for example sitting naked in a pile of snow drinking mojito's. To be honest, there is no snow or at least it's very rare. Yesterday it was hailing though.

Hyvää Juhannusta! (Happy midsummer)

Hugs, Momone