As Old Man Winter sheds his snowy coat in far-off Finland, the whole nation comes to life and heads out of doors. City streets throb with life as throngs of winter-worn citizens pour into the open-air markets looking for testimonials of summer's victory and its newly conquered reign.
A sunny summer day in South Harbor Market in Helsinki is a colorful introduction to the industry and imagination of these Nordic people. Sales tables are spread with goods that defy description. They come from private back- yard garden plots, kitchens, workshops and ateliers. They are organically grown, handmade or freshly baked or caught.
Everything that is healthy, natural and genuinely Finnish is on display here, and shows that the occupations and preoccupations of the Finns are deeply rooted in the forests and anchored in the seas. From the forests' riotous abandon or the country gardens' grooming come endless varieties of berries: cranberries, blueberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries. Ah, those strawberries! The biggest, juiciest, sweetest strawberries in the world!
As for the sea, fishermen from the outlying islands bring in their morning's catch of salmon, halibut, white fish and herring. Seagulls hover enviously as the fresh or smoked-today catch changes hands.
Artful color and design have long been the Finns' forte, and the marketplace will only validate the claim, making the square a riot of colors, aromas, sights and sounds. A puppeteer shows off the work of his hands: dolls with grotesque papier maché faces in theatrical costumes are for sale for those who have a penchant for the slightly bizarre. Gaily painted clay rooster whistles line up in perfect formations. Fluffy fur hats and comfortable reindeer- skin slippers appeal to the Northerners to whom the winter winds are still in fresh recollection. Baskets of all description invite children to look for their own receptacles for those traditional family trips to the forests to pick mushrooms or berries. An accordion player pulls merry melodies out of his elastic instrument; a gypsy woman, heaving under heavy layers of black velvet and lace, predicts an anxious customer's future; a flower merchant hangs out strings of colorful blossom bouquets to dry in the tender sunshine; shoppers inspect baked goods and fruits of the earth, and tourists squint at bright merchandise that hail from Finland's natural resources: fur, birch, bark, leather, wood, cotton, flax, grain.
And once the business is finished in the market place, it is time for a leisurely stroll up to the nearby park to sit on a bench to enjoy a handful of berries or a meat-pie. Or perhaps more inviting yet: a boat trip to one of the beautiful, lush islands from whence the day's merchandise might have come.
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This page was created on May 1, 1998
Most recent revision: March 2, 2007