Friday 8 December 2017

The Centenary of Finland's Indenpendence Day


Creating Finland was and continues to be a group effort. Finland’s theme for the celebratory year is “Together,” showing that everyone – Finns and friends of Finns is welcome to take part, just as creating and building the nation was done in joint efforts.

On December 6, flags fly high and the concerts and parades continue, as Finnish Independence Day celebrations take place in multicultural spirits in Helsinki and around the World.

The enthusiastic Finns and friends of Finns have collectively co-created a year full of events, just to name a few: travelling sauna, tango, samba, snow castles, silent films, an arctic expo, a project to involve refugees in startup businesses…even Finnish wine from France, and a Finland 100 satellite which takes photos of the Northern Lights from space. These celebrations and events also examine the concept of heritage as it appears in indigenous peoples’ languages and thinking, as well as intangible and tangible cultural heritage.

The Finlandia Foundation of Montana is honoured to restore, recreate and share the Finnish- and Scandinavian-American cultural heritage and innovation with its hometown Missoula and to serve the residents in Montana and beyond through its’ community outreach programs that are geared towards enriching the lives and building towards more cohesive and open communities. The like-minded Nordic philosophies emphasize “the social and the collective” in maximizing the potential for equal opportunity. These values are deep in the Nordic culture which has been ever-evolving and which has become more diverse throughout the century.


The people behind the works of the Finlandia Foundation of Montana could not be more proud and humble to live and be at present in a place like Missoula- a community that welcomes and understands that there’s always more room to grow towards equity and acceptance and also to have more of the “Nordic”.