Research Paper: Finnish Traditional Foods, Wellbeing, and Culture

Limitations:

I would like to acknowledge the limitations in my research. While conduction my research I was able to spend two weeks in Finland eating and learning about Finnish foods and customs. I was only able to spend time with Linda’s family on the small island of Åland and was not able to broaden my scope to mainland Finland. I would also like to acknowledge that while conducting my research and analyzing my information my son Björn was born. This event shifted my focus and took away from deeper analysis from my research topics, a conscious choice but also a limitation of my research.

My view:

         When experiencing culture, I have always found that food was an excellent gateway to social customs and cultural practice and ideology. The food from Finland says so much about the people. Traditional Finnish food consists of basic ingredients that are found sustainably in Finland. Karjalan Piirakka (in Swedish: Karelsk pirog), or Karelian pie in English, is a traditional dish made from rye, filled with rice porridge, and topped with a mix of boiled eggs blended together with butter. All of these products are easily sourced locally and are staples in traditional Finnish cuisine. Finland also has long tradition in foraging goods and even has an “Allemansrätten” or “Everyman’s Right” written into their laws giving all people that are in Finland access to food that can be foraged regardless of land ownership (nationalparks.fi). This means that anyone can freely pick berries, mushrooms, and go fishing essentially anywhere, as long as they respect and protect the nature they encounter. 

Background of Finnish Traditional Foods:

Finland’s food choices have often been made out of necessity.

Matt: Why do you think that traditional foods came to be the way they are in Finland? Was there any reasons that certain foods were picked?

Linda: I would say the food, the traditional foods, were what was traditionally accessible… you know with long winters, food had to be preserved, stored, salted, preserved in lye. A lot of traditional dishes are just that, food that has been preserved and stored in salt or lye. A great example of this is surströmming… which is just herring preserved in lye. There are a lot of videos online of people completing the surströmming challenge and trying not to throw up when eating it. It seems really gross… I’ve never tried it. (Salazar & Linda Salazar, 2023)

Keeping the food supply up during the winter was critical to survival. Finding foods that were economically advantageous was also important:

Matt: Tove, what do you think led to Finnish foods being the way that they are?

Tove: Finland used to be a poor country. Fishing, hunting and farming are still important today. Also, mushroom and berry picking. (Salazar & Tove Waller, 2023)

When speaking with Tove and Linda I was able to see that surviving through the winter was more than just an important necessity, and is something that has shaped the Finnish cultural identity.

Before Finland was independent, it was a part of both Russia and Sweden for centuries. When the Finnish people were not united under a single government or homeland, they took to creating cultural identity around food. Ritva Kylli from the University of Oulu talks about the Finnish national identity in her article, "National Identity and the Shaping of Finnish Food Taste." She states that, "Food was one of the symbols that the Finnish national identity was built on before independence in 1917." (Kylli, 178). She states that before the nineteenth century the national cuisine was not well established and when people would come to visit Finland, the food that was offered them was usually imported as what was local was seen as, less than. (Kylli, 181) This correlates with my interview with Tove Waller. Tove had stated that Finland has been a poor country, even before it was a country. The food that was created from this was not regarded as high class but is now celebrated as uniquely Finnish. 

A rather fun and interesting form of food, or drink, is alcohol in Finland. Traditionally many foods are paired with different liqueurs and are drunk together with song. We see in the Finnish epic poem, "The Kalevala" that there is even an entire chapter dedicated to the origin of beer! While this epic poem is not the foundation of Finnish culture, it is a strong suggestion of what the culture was created on. We see that drinks, food, song and dance are all very important cultural aspects for wellbeing through Kalevala: 

Wellbeing:

Finland, while being nominated the happiest country in the world by the United Nations (worldhappiness.report), still has struggles with wellbeing and mental health. It is reported that Finland has the 8th most lonely older adult population in the world according to ourworlddata.org. (ourworlddata.org) 

When speaking with my wife's family, they mentioned that one way that Finns really bond together is through food and drink. They also mentioned that it is not done often enough, "Finns do not eat together enough, but it is done with family a couple times a day, like one or two." (Salazar & Emilia Virta, 2023). Inkeri Hakamies writes about food and culture in Finland in her paper, "Eat, Share, Love". She really does a good job explaining how and why food is so important in Finland: 

"Food is fuel for the body, but it is also much more than that. Food is culture, and it has emotional, symbolic, abstract and sometimes ambiguous meanings. What we eat and how we eat it matters -- and not just for our physical well-being, but for our cultural identity." (Hakamies, 1) 

Since Finns did not have a homeland for many years before their independence in 1917, food was critical for creating an identity as a united Finnish people. While Finland is not the loneliest country in the world, their rankings may improve with more bonding over the food that helped to identify them as Finns! 

Conclusion

While visiting Finland I met some incredible people and bonded with them over food and drinks. I tried food that I had never seen in my life and learned about the cultural importance that came with the dishes, ingredients, and customs surrounding their consumption. I spent time in the sauna with Linda's father and drank beer, as is customary in Finland. We can see that food has played a pivotal role in the culture and well-being of the Finnish people.  Linda's father spoke to the importance of food as culture when detailing the food that he makes and has served:

"As interested in cultures, I find food culture interesting as well of course. I wouldn't say it plays a very big role in my own choice of eating, but I still of course sense that Finnishness in me when I like, without hesitating, the mentioned dishes, for example cold sausage with mustard made in Turku. :) A deeper feeling for the Karelian stew actually hit me when I heard myself saying, at my Father's funeral, wishing the guests welcome to the memorial ceremony that we will serve Karjalanpaisti in memory of my Dad, according to his wish. I used the Finnish word for the food while speaking Swedish, and that felt so much like my Dad, who is the most Finnish Swedish speaking person I've know (after myself :) )" (Salazar & Mikael Virta, 2023)

Even mentioning the dish Karjalanpaisti for Mikael, in Finnish instead of Swedish, made him feel like one of the most Finnish Swedish speaking people that he ever knew, his father. Food has deep connections and creates well-being in Finland. I deeply enjoyed my time in Finland and look forward to a future of learning more of the customs while I grow my family with my Finnish wife. 

Bibliography

“Everyman's Right.” Nationalparks.fi. Accessed March 21, 2023. https://www.nationalparks.fi/en-US/everymansright.

Hakamies, Inkeri. “Eat, Share, Love.” Ethnologia Fennica 45 (2018): 135–38. https://doi.org/10.23991/ef.v45i0.74239.

Kylli, Ritva. “National Identity and the Shaping of Finnish Food Taste.” Journal of Finnish Studies 21, no. 1-2 (2018): 178–205. https://doi.org/10.5406/28315081.21.1.2.08.

Lönnrot, Elias. “Kalevala the Epic Poem of Finland into English.” The Project Gutenberg eBook of Kalevala: the Epic Poem of Finland, by Elias Lönnrot. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5186/5186-h/5186-h.htm#chap20. 

“Manuscript for ‘Helan Går’ - Nyrotaryhistory.org.” Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.nyrotaryhistory.org/sweden_day/helan_gar.pdf.

Our World in Data based on Sundström et al. (2009), Savikko et al (2005), ONS (2019) and CIGNA (2018).

Salazar, Matthew and Linda Salazar. 2023. An interview with Linda Salazar on March 9, 2023. 21 mins. Escondido, California: Unpublished audio transcript.

Salazar, Matthew and Emilia Virta. 2023. An interview with Tove Waller on March 15, 2023. Escondido, California and Umeå, Sweden: Unpublished written interview.

Salazar, Matthew and Klas Mikael Virta. 2023. An interview with Klas Mikael Virta on March 15, 2023. Escondido, California and Mariehamn, Åland: Unpublished written interview.

Salazar, Matthew and Tove Waller. 2023. An interview with Tove Waller on March 15, 2023. Escondido, California and Jomala, Åland: Unpublished written interview.

“United Nations World Happiness Report.” Home | The World Happiness Report, 2023. https://worldhappiness.report/.