5 odd things people can do in Finland

Behaviour and weird habits

If you’re willing to move to Finland for business one of the first things you need to know is Finnish people. Finns are known to be reflective; they would rather analyze and think about a given situation before acting. Don’t be too surprised and don’t take it personally if you find them distant or lacking of interest ! We wanted to warn you by putting Finnish cold behaviour as one of the odd things people can do in Finland.

They might just be in their thoughts, and known to talk mainly when they have something important to say, obviously something they’ve reflected on previously. This can happen when meeting a Finn, he might say “hello” and then take some time to reflect on what he thinks about you or what he wants to tell you. 

Moreover, unlike in many countries the question “how are you ?” doesn’t have the same meaning. Indeed Finns take it literally and will be willing to talk in detail about their life. Once again don’t be surprised if you ask the question and your colleagues look at you in a weird way ! 

Day for failure

Finland is celebrating every 13 of october, the Day for Failure since 2010. The point of this celebration is to honor people who are unlucky or unfortunate. During this day everybody is allowed to fail and not feel ashamed. What’s the point of this day? It’s to make people understand that you can rise from failure and grow by making mistakes. 

This is the best way to understand that we are humans and we are not alone when we fail. The steps to do it correctly is to tweet about your failures and read about other’s failure. I think it is safe to say that this day of failure definitly finds its place in these odd things people can do in Finland.

This day shows how different Finnish people can be when it comes to education and how they deal with mistakes.

Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort 

If you are looking for a magical experience, check out now the Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort. You can rent out a beautiful tiny glass igloos to spend the night under an amazing sky of northern lights like you have never seen before. 

Founded in 1973 by a traveller named Jussi which had his car broken down and was forced to establish his camp. He fell in love with that place and decided to make it home. Today, the place became famous and was converted in a luxury resort. 

So if you are travelling around Finland, you definitely need to come by that unique place.

Sauna business 

The Finnish sauna is a historical tradition which still exists today. The visitors to the country consider saunas as the places for relaxation. Nevertheless, in Finland the sauna is also the place for talking business. Finns like going to sauna every weekend. Even a branch of Burger King in Helsinki has installed a sauna for business meetings (source: (https://theculturetrip.com/europe/finland/articles/why-this-nation-has-business-meetings-in-saunas/, by Jessica Wood on 23/12/2017). You understand now, why we put this one is our ranking of odd things people can do in Finland.

A ‘business sauna’ is arranged the same way like the home one – the right temperature is 90 degrees, all guests are naked. There are no universal time frames to be observed in sauna, it depends on one’s health. 

After the heat it is recommended to have a cold shower or dip in a lake, then relax in lounge with a bottle of refreshing drink.

Santa Claus’ Office

In Finland, you can find the real Santa Claus’ Main Post Office. This famous place is located about five miles north of the city of Rovaniemi, in Santa’s Village. It is built from pine trees and natural stone and it’s the only official Santa Claus Post Office since 1985.

All the kids in all over the world send their letters in this place, they deal with 17 millions letters from nearly 200 differents countries. It is also possible to visit the place and you have a little shop around to buy a Christmas souvenir. If you can’t visit the place you can order your own card via the post office.

Finns are only modest drinkers

The common myth about the Finns is that they are heavy drinkers, nevertheless, the interactive map above rejects this prejudice.