Merry Christmas from Finland

 

For years, I’ve listened to these carols every Christmas Eve. Not only do they give me a jolt of the Christmas spirit (which can be tricky in the deserts of Arizona), they now remind me of many late nights waiting for my nosy kids to fall asleep, wrapping piles of gifts after midnight and assembling bicycles until three A.M.

Enjoy the music and, as they say in Finland, hyvää joulua!

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  1. user_1938 Inactive
    user_1938
    @AaronMiller

    Nice. I particularly like that first one.

    • #1
  2. user_10225 Member
    user_10225
    @JohnDavey

    It’s 10PM – I’m still waiting for both daughters to be asleep. Only a little bit left to wrap, but I’ve never wrapped an acoustic guitar before.

    One my mom played every year. Until I was 4 I thought it was Christmas Enchilada-y

    • #2
  3. kmtanner Inactive
    kmtanner
    @kmtanner

    Here is one written by Jean Sibelius,

    • #3
  4. user_199279 Coolidge
    user_199279
    @ChrisCampion

    They have bikes in Finland?  What will that zany crew think of next?

    • #4
  5. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    This isn’t a Finnish carol, but rather a traditional Finnish (Karelian) wedding song:

    There is also a beautiful a-cappella rendition of this tune arranged by Janika Vandervelde, arctic and sparkling, so perfect for wintertime. Though there’s not yet a satisfactory performance of the a-cappella version on YouTube, you can listen to a clip of the arrangement here.

    • #5
  6. MJBubba Member
    MJBubba
    @

    Thank you.

    Merry Christmas.

    • #6
  7. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    kmtanner:Here is one written by Jean Sibelius,

    The gnomes in charge of Rico-maintenance should know that the video kmtanner embedded is not visible to everyone, and that some members’ embedded videos not being visible to other members has been a recurring problem in the past week or so.

    • #7
  8. Byron Horatio Inactive
    Byron Horatio
    @ByronHoratio

    I’ve always loved the Finns. Especially Gustaf Mannerheim (who was not from Finland and did not speak the language), but still one of the titans of the 20th century for beating the Soviets and insulting Hitler by smoking cigars in front of him.

    That takes “Sisu,” which the Finns have a lot of.

    • #8
  9. ParisParamus Inactive
    ParisParamus
    @ParisParamus

    Midget Faded Rattlesnake, that song you post sounds like it influenced Neil Young…

    • #9
  10. kmtanner Inactive
    kmtanner
    @kmtanner

    Mannerheim spoke Finnish, my mother talked to him during the war, she was then 6 years old. Mannerheim was born in Askainen Finland, although his family was originally from germany.

    • #10
  11. awksedperl Member
    awksedperl
    @ArchieCampbell

    Before I moved away from AZ, my family and I would drive through Moon Valley, a suburb in then the north of Phoenix (now probably closer to the center, so big has it gotten), on Christmas Eve, and look at the luminarias. The whole neighborhood would line every street with them, streetlights would be turned off, and cars would turn their headlights off and drive through 1-2 miles of streets so arranged. So beautiful. I wonder if they still do that.

    • #11
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