Late Halloween / Kekri post

I should really had posted these photos like over a month ago, when they still were current.. Haha. 

Oh well, here they are anyway. Halloween is quite a new thing in Finland and isn't such a big holiday like in the U.K. or United States. But I think it is nice to have some decorations and stuff. I carved a pumpkin and baked a pumpkin pie. Mmmmmm, that was yummy!!

However Halloween contains many elements in common with traditional Finnish late autumn festival called Kekri. It is the ancient, almost forgotten Finnish celebration of the end of the harvest season, and was still commonly celebrated in rural Finland 100 years ago. In Finland the turn of the year occurred at around Kekri time, and at about the same time, Finns observed an interim period of about two weeks, when the months, calculated according to the phases of the moon, were adjusted to the solar year.

People looked for omens in the weather for the next harvest season, and guidance was also sought on matters of love. The spirits of the dead were said to wander in this world especially during the Kekri period.

At harvest time, stores of food were bulging, and there was no stinginess when celebrating the autumn feast. Once the work of the year was done, it was time to eat, drink, and dance.

The "Köyri goats", dressed in a mask and fur (precursors of the present Finnish Father Christmas) went from house to house begging for drinks of the fermented drink sahti, and amusing the people in the house.

To read more about Kekri see the link below:
http://www.hs.fi/english/print/1135222832346

Piece of the pumpkin pie I baked.

We also visited two Kekri-parties. The other one was at Children's museum and the other was organized by some local residents' associations and the association of the useful plants. It's wonderful that some of the old traditions are revived.