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25-434: The Joulupukki was originally a pagan tradition . Today, in some parts of Finland , the folk custom persists of persons performing in goat costume in return for leftover Christmas food. The performer traditionally is an older man, who is called a " nuuttipukki  [ fi ] ". In Finland in its modern incarnation, inspired by the international Santa Clause figure, he usually wears warm red robbers, but with

50-558: A broad band of blue near the fur, uses a walking stick, and travels in a sleigh pulled by a number of reindeer (which do not fly, unlike Santa Claus' team). In Lapland , he rides in a pulkka , rather than a sleigh. The popular holiday song " Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ", in its Finnish translation, Petteri Punakuono , has led to Rudolph's general acceptance in Finland as Joulupukki's lead reindeer. Joulupukki

75-430: A historical source; only in the late eighteenth century did scholars begin to critically re-examine Agricola's work, finding that most of the figures on his list were not gods, but local guardian spirits, figures from folk mythology or explanatory legends, cultural heroes, Christian saints under alternative names, and, in one case, a harvest-time festival. Cristfried Ganander 's Mythologia Fennica , published in 1789,

100-455: A lesser extent, Norse mythologies. Finnish mythology survived within an oral tradition of mythical poem-singing and folklore well into the 19th century. Of the animals, the most sacred was the bear , whose real name was never uttered out loud, which was thought to be unfavorable to the hunt. The bear ("karhu" in Finnish) was seen as the embodiment of the forefathers, and for this reason it

125-662: A list of purported deities of the Häme (in Swedish, Tavastia) and Karjala (Karelia). It detailed twelve deities in each region with their supposed functions briefly set out in verse form. (Some commentators state that only eleven deities were listed for Häme, not counting Agricola's mention of Piru , the Devil). Due to the lists, Agricola is considered to be the father of the study of Finnish religious history and mythology. Later scholars and students commonly quoted Agricola's lists as

150-609: A post in 1763. He completed his master's degree in 1766. While studying, he became influenced by the natural sciences and became interested in the notion of Finnishness of Henrik Gabriel Porthan . Aenigmata Fennica Ganander began his literary career by publishing a collection of riddles and fairy tales , which he collected from oral tradition in Ostrobothnia while chaplain in Rantsila . His collection Aenigmata Fennica , Suomalaiset Arwotuxet Wastausten kansa

175-576: A teacher. Ganander was born in Haapajärvi in 1741, to chaplain Thomas Ganader and his wife Helena Hiden. After his father's death in 1752, he was taken in by his grandfather Henrik Hiden, who was also a chaplain in the vicarage of Kauhajoki . Cristfried himself later worked as a chaplain in Rantsila from 1775 to 1790. He became a priest at the Academy of Turku and was consecrated to

200-550: Is a prominent character in Rare Exports , a movie based on the award-winning shorts by Jalmari Helander . Finnish mythology Finnish mythology commonly refers of the folklore of Finnish paganism , of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people . It has many shared features with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies, but also with neighbouring Baltic , Slavic and, to

225-465: Is often mentioned as having a wife, Joulumuori ( lit.   ' Old Lady Christmas ' ), but tradition says little of her. Pagans used to have festivities to honour the return of the sun and some believe Joulupukki is the earliest form of present-day Santa. The Yule Goat was thought by some to be an ugly creature and frightened children while others believe it was an invisible creature that helped prepare for Yule. Popular radio programs from

250-537: The synnyt , which give mythical accounts of the origins of many natural phenomena. From this material Lönnrot edited the Kalevala as well as the Kanteletar . The wealth of folk poetry collected in the 19th century often deals with pre-Christian pagan themes, and has allowed scholars to study Finnish mythology in more detail. The world was believed to have been formed out of a bird's egg or eggs. The species of

275-606: The Sky God, Ilmarinen's destiny was to turn into a smith-hero, or the god of the rock. In the epic poetry of the Kalevala, Ilmarinen is credited with forging the stars on the dome of the sky and the magic mill of plenty, the Sampo . Ukko's weapon was a hammer , axe or sword , by which he struck lightning . While Ukko and his wife Akka ("old woman") mated, there was a thunderstorm. He created thunderstorms by riding his chariot over

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300-429: The bird and the number of eggs varies between traditions. In the Kalevala the bird is a pochard that lays seven eggs (six of gold and one of iron). Examples from other stories include a swallow , a loon , and a mythical giant eagle, kokko . The sky was believed to be the upper cover of the egg; alternately it was seen as a tent, which was supported by a column at the north pole, below the north star. The movement of

325-605: The clouds. The original weapon of Ukko was probably the boat-shaped stone axe of battle axe culture . Ukko's hammer Vasara (lit. "hammer") probably originally meant the same thing as the boat-shaped stone axe. When stone tools were abandoned in the metal ages, the origins of stone weapons became a mystery. They were believed to be weapons of Ukko left behind after a lightning strike. Shamans collected and held stone axes because they were believed to hold supernatural powers. Cristfried Ganander Cristfried Ganander (21 November 1741 in Haapajärvi – 17 February 1790 in Rantsila )

350-476: The stars was explained to be caused by the sky-dome's rotation around the North Star and itself. A great whirl was caused at the north pole by the rotation of a column of sky. Through this whirl, souls could exit the world to the land of dead, Tuonela . Earth was believed to be flat. At the edges of Earth was Lintukoto  [ fi ] , "the home of the birds", a warm region in which birds lived during

375-420: The winter. The Milky Way is called Linnunrata, "the path of the birds", because the birds were believed to move along it to Lintukoto and back. In Modern Finnish usage, the word lintukoto means an imaginary happy, warm, and peaceful paradise-like place. Birds also had other significance. Birds brought a human's soul to the body at the moment of birth, and took it away at the moment of death. In some areas, it

400-535: The year 1927 onwards probably had great influence in reformatting the concept with the Santa-like costume, reindeer and Korvatunturi as his dwelling place. Because there really are reindeer in Finland, and Finns live up North, the popular American story took root in Finland very quickly. Finland's Joulupukki receives over 500,000 letters from over 200 countries every year. Most letters come from Poland, Italy, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau . Joulupukki

425-457: Was a Finnish compiler of folk culture , a priest and an 18th-century lexicographer . Ganander's greatest achievement was the compilation of the first fully extensive Finnish-language dictionary which was, however, unpublished. He was also a collector of folk culture well before Elias Lönnrot . His most well-known published work is Mythologia Fennica in 1789, a reference book of folk religion . He also published some poetry and worked as

450-422: Was a dark and lifeless place, where everybody slept forever. A sufficiently brave shaman could travel to Tuonela in trance to ask for the forefathers' guidance. This required crossing the dark river of Tuonela. If the shaman had a proper reason, a boat would come to take them over. Many times, a shaman's soul would have to trick the guards of Tuonela into thinking that they were actually dead. Ukko ("old man")

475-492: Was a god of the sky, weather, and the crops. The Finnish word for thunder, "ukkonen" (little Ukko) or "ukonilma" (Ukko's weather), is derived from his name. In the Kalevala he is also called "ylijumala" (overgod, Supreme God). He makes all his appearances in myths solely by natural effects. Ukko's origins are probably in Baltic Perkons and the older Finnish sky god Ilmarinen . While Ukko took Ilmarinen's position as

500-682: Was also a presentation of the early history of the Finnish people. The work was originally completed in 1785, and was in fact a subset of Ganander's wider lexicographical work. A reprinted version was printed in 1961. Elias Lönnrot considered it to be a notable work. Lönnrot later continued from Ganader's starting point. Nytt Finskt Lexicon The most notable of Ganader's works is his dictionary Nytt Finskt Lexicon  [ fi ] . The dictionary includes over 30,000 lexical entries which have Swedish and Latin explanations. There are also etymological explanations in his book. Although it

525-475: Was called by many circumlocutions: mesikämmen ("mead-paw"), otso ("browed one"), kontio ("dweller of the land"), metsän kultaomena ("the golden apple of the forest"). It was not strictly seen as a god. The first historical mention of Finnish folk religion was by the bishop and Lutheran reformer Mikael Agricola (1510–1555) in the preface to his 1551 Finnish translation of the Psalms . Agricola supplied

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550-473: Was necessary to have a wooden bird-figure nearby to prevent the soul from escaping during sleep. This Sielulintu  [ fi ] , "the soul-bird", protected the soul from being lost in the paths of dreams. Waterfowl are very common in tales, and also in stone paintings and carvings, indicating their great significance in the beliefs of ancient Finns. Tuonela was the land of dead: an underground home or city for all dead people, without moral judgement. It

575-484: Was not published during his lifetime, it was finally published as a reprint between 1937 and 1940. Other works In 1780, Ganander published a thesis about the origin, way of life and language of the Romany . His national and scholarly interests applied to education in the late 18th century. Ganader published two of the first Finnish-language medical books Maan-Miehen Huone- ja Koti-Aptheeki ( "The Home Pharmacy for

600-412: Was published in 1783 and comprises in its first edition, 378 riddles (though a later edition was shortened to remove some sexual and ecclesiastical riddles). It is based on the folk poetry he had collected as well as the Finnish lexicon . Mythologia Fennica In 1789, Mythologia Fennica was published as a reference book of folk poetry, spells, traditions, and literary sources. The book

625-406: Was the first truly scholarly foray into Finnish mythology. In the 19th century, research into Finnish folklore intensified. Scholars like Elias Lönnrot , J.F. Cajan , M.A. Castrén , and D.E.D. Europaeus travelled around Finland writing down folk poetry sung by runo (poem) singers, many of whom were tietäjät (traditional ritual specialists). The genres they collected included material like

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