Finn Fest 2013

A much anticipated vacation this year was a journey by car to Hancock,MI to attend the annual Finnish 4 day festival. As we meandered by car through  a town called Toivola and finally into the upper peninsula and into the copper country of  northern Michigan. Stopping at a grocery store, I discovered Finnish food such as fresh  warm pasties and rhubarb yogurt.  We checked into our dorm room at Finlandia University and dined in the Finlandia Cafe downstairs and had Finnish cuisine as Pork Chops with stuffed green peppers.

The Festival takes place in many places and there is a shuttle bus that drops you off at any location. Many of the classes that I took were at Michigan Technological  University across the bridge in Houghton, Mi. On Thursday I attended a lecture with Lauri Anderson on Writing Memoirs. He is an author of eight books, His first book, Hunting Hemingway's Trout, is the one that I bought in the Tori {marketplace}

The next destination was a lecture of Finnish  Midsummer desserts from  a Finnish chef, Sirpa Welch.  Sirpa serves as an executive chef at the Finnish Consulate in Los Angeles since 1997. Her Rhubarb dessert was a huge hit. But she also added that black licorice ice cream is a food trend  {Finland has there own brand, Panda black licorice, that is soft and favorable.

Visiting the Student Development Center was next and I saw  museum displays on the Kalevala, Finland's national epic poem, crazy quilt demonstrations, rag rug loom weaving, and authentic Laplander mittens. Nordic knitter named Laura Ricketts stashmuffinsloosethreads.com, had lots to display and she used traditional patterns  Her mittens were done in colors of red, white, navy, with traditional Sami patterns. Upstairs was a small War museum on display with clothing, guns, knives, helmets, and military posters, books, and war related articles.

Next was a lecture named, What Everyone Should Know About the Kalevala by Borje Vahamaki, University Of Toronto. The Kalevala is a tradition that was sung orally from person to person, and is consisted of 50 Ruins {50 sections}. The national harp, the Kantala, originally had 5 strings because of the 5 notes of music used in the singing of the  Kalevala.  The Kalevala has many layers of texture. Myths, Magic, Shaman, Adventure,and Christian poetry.

Next Lecture, Titanic: The Unintended Arrival by Gregory Isola explained  the history of the ship builder and that there were 8 second class Finnish passengers on board the Titanic, and 58 3rd class passengers.

There were many more lecture I went to all informative and professional.  Because there is a large variety of lectures, music, dance, and film events, everyone's ethnic  Finn experience will be different.  I also attended an old time lumberjack harmonic music session and  a Sami painter documentary ,Solveig: The Life and Artwork of Solveig Arneng Johnson . In the evening it was time to sample the areas beer craft while learning to do a scottish  folk dance at the Finnish American Heritage Center, which included Finnish theme museum art work www.finlandia.edu/FAHC. Shopping in the marketplace was  fun and I found books, tshirts, and a reindeer crafted necklace.www.crystalcollectreindeer.com