Anniversaries, celebrations and other special days tell us about traditions, worldwide and special cultural meanings, similarities and differences, and the time that is passing by. They stop the daily routines, direct our thoughts and duties elsewhere, and let our bodies and minds move on. Movement is refreshing.

In Finland we celebrate some sacral feasts, among them Christmas, Midsummer and Easter as the most important ones. However, as vital as these sacral feasts are some secular jubilees, like the celebration of New Years Day and the carnival of the First of May. Shrovetide is a special time for families and children to have fun in the open winter air. Mothers are celebrated on their day in springtime and fathers in the autumn. Birthdays and days for our first names are also honoured in Finland, and ceremonies of weddings, baptisms, confirmations and funerals are celebrated. During the last decades hen nights and bachelor parties have became popular, as well as feasts on Halloween and Valentine’s Day as in America.

In Spring 2003 a group of students in teacher education collated the cultural backgrounds of some special days in Finland and their experiences during celebrations of them. With the collated knowledge and the memories as a ground, students constructed pictures of feastive meanings on vast cottons, like cloths. Many of the students wanted to fasten their thoughts on the celebration of Midsummer and big midsummer cloths were painted and printed, some were interested in Easter, one constructed a cloth for Mother’s Day and a few for birthdays. Here are some cloths for special days: The Mother's day , Jenni Kiri Midsummer , Elina Nykänen Easter, Riikka Hakulinen Birthday, Reetta-Kaisa Laitinen

Here you can see a few fotos of these cloths.

Collected: Raili Kärkkäinen & Mikko Halonen