Winter for a Finnish person means a lot of talk of light... or more like lack there of.
We are said to be one of the most introverted peoples around, and I have given this a lot of thought. Are we? And if so, why?After reading Paula Havaste's trilogy about how people used to live in Finland right around as the Christians were about to enter our realm, it is no wonder we are on the silent side: AND are very conscious of maintaining our personal space.
At that time, 16th century or so, your nearest neighbor could live as far as a day's travel away, and so you were most often surrounded just by family for months on end. But when someone did venture around, they were sure to have traveled a long time and were thus given all the food and rest they wanted; and so I believe that is how our Finnish sense of modest hospitality was born, along with our natural need for personal space.
But there are two very drastically different sides to us Finns; and it is often joked about we are silent but warm on the inside, and can you wonder when you compare how the seasons can make one place look so drastically different just six months apart!
