Bucharest got snow. In fact, I think all Romania got snow,
in a way which was even noticed in the Finnish press. (As the protests in Bucharest barely aren't..)
I'm happy my apartment's window gives me a good view. And hope in the future you, dear readers, will also be happy about it.
It gives me such a view, from the 8th floor, that I can also at late night shoot people playing football.
In the snow. In a subzero temperature.
For all my 'international' readers to be cleared: In Finland one of our national sports is to play football in a snowdrift. So that is also why I'm a bit surprised, and honestly amazed, that people do almost the same here in Romania.
"Ils sont fous ces roumains!"
Ps. Raise your hands, how many of you actually knew that the dog of Obelix is in english called 'Dogmatix'?
(Original French name Idéfix - same as in Finnish)
..Sorry for staying quiet (or blind) for a while. But here's new pictures. Taken in December.
Does anyone know who these guys are?
I've heard that one of them is from France, second from Italy and third is from Spain. And that they were traveling to Budapest, Hungary, from Bucharest, Romania, with one guy from Finland.
Nevertheless, I really haven't seen them since (as the same group).
Ps. The 2nd last photo won the Erasmus photo contest on FB, with pictures that best describes each's Erasmus experience. My experience: "A jump to unknown."
This is for all my international friends and to those who show at least slight interested into Finnish culture.
Here's a lot of reading this time, but it will - hopefully - be rewarded in the end.
As being abroad, I started to think and wonder about Finnish Christmas time traditions. What to tell.
So yeah. This is an old (Northern) Finnish tradition, called Tiernapojat. In english Star Boys Procession.
..sounds like a glam-proge-band, doesn't it?
I find this quite freaky because I've never truly understood why it is played in every school and almost everywhere in Finland, before Christmas. Though of course understand the topic and the message.
So, gladly, for all of you, my dear readers, I found some facts about it.
It was originally played by little boys in northern Finland who went from door to door begging some coins.
As so many other (protestant) Christian tradition (as well St. Lucia bringing light to darkness), also this has come to us from Sweden and it is apparently few centuries old tradition (in Finland).
Literally tiernapojat means the star boys. Word 'tierna',
meaning in modern Finnish absolutely nothing, comes from Swedish word 'stjärne', the star.
So therefore the english translation is the Star Boys Procession.
So, there's always four characters. One is king Herod;
The second is the king of negroes - finnish word 'murjaani' comes from Swedish loan word from medieval French 'le murian' (one of the three magi - the black guy in the play);
The third one is king Herod's soldier and servant 'knihti' (comes from Swedish word 'knekt', meaning soldier or servant)
and the fourth is in Finnish called 'mänkki' ('männchen' of german), he is basically just a statistic character who holds and wheels the star.
Complicated enough?
Well, basically the story is based on the gospel according to St. Matthew and the epiphany about Christ.
If you don't know the story, you can check it from your nearest Holy Bible, or from here:
Meanwhile, we who are familiar with the storyline, shall continue about this specific play.
It starts when in the very beginning the soldier comes and asks can they come to sing.
Then they come and start with greetings for the residents of the household.
Herod is on his way to Betlehem where he meets the Magi, king of le murian. Then he tells him to kneel in front of him and submit.
Which le murian does after his solo.
Mänkki, the star, tells the news about new-born Christ.
They sing about star of Betlehem and the magi who come to give presents to baby-Christ.
Herod asks from Knihti, the soldier, have he seen "these three wise men from the eastern land" in which he answers that they went each different way to their own land.
Herod gets mad and tells Knihti to go to Betlehem and kill all baby boys under 2 years.
(This is the most 'authentic', the most common way to perform it. By school boys. They seem to be winners of some competition.)
Knihti sings solo:
He is a brave soldier who is taught to obey the emperor, who therefore is responsible of his acts.
Meanwhile Knihti is away, the others sings and praises the grand duke Alexander (Aleksanteri) and thanks him of ending the slavery and 'styrangy' (tyranny).
Btw, this is a part which I don't really get in this context.. but it refers to finnish history (during its autonomy under Russia in the 19th century)
Knihti comes back and announces that he killed all the baby boys.
Herod rewards his bravery.
Everybody sings how the angels told to the shepherds about the born of Messiah.
After that they thank God.
In the end Knihti asks for a coin and Mänkki a bit of candle for the star.
In the very end they thank again and wish a good christmas.
So, if you had patience and interest until here, I shall give you two other, different versions.
The first is performed by four finnish rock singers and it is accompanied of a hard rock band
(Trio Niskalaukaus - Neckshot)
Personally I like their costumes the most.
And the last one is the freakiest...
..if anyone reads until here, I shall thank my friend Jaakko.
And wish you all happy and peaceful waiting of Christmas (whether you celebrated it or not)!
This is the most epic and most serious post so far.
In order to get into the mood, please click the play-button on the next video.
As the Naziz and their allies and collaborators implemented plans to destroy the jews of Europe (which would come to be know as the Holocaust or Shoah), the Romanian state unleashed its own systematic persecution of the jews, which was heralded by the antisemitic legislation of 1940.
The pogroms in Doroholand Galați, in June 1940, as well as those in București, in January 1941, and in Iași, in June 1941, left thousands dead and marked the beginning of the organised destruction of Romanian jewry.
In october 1941, the regime of Ion Antonescu began deporting the jews of Basarabia and Bucovina to Transnistria, launching a genocidal campaign to eliminate the country's jewish population. Between 1940 and 1944, the Romanian state was responsible for the deaths of at least 280,00 Romanian and Ukrainian jews. Twenty five thousand people of Roma origin were also deported to Transnistria, where 11,00 died. In the spring of 1944, the occupying Hungarian authorities in the northwestern regions of Romania deported 135,00 Transylvanian jews, who were murdered in Auschwitz by the nazi Germany.
Memorialul victimelor holocaustului din Româniă
autor Peter Jacobi
8.10.2009
The Romanian nation and their government erected this memorial as a permanent place of remembrance and as a warning addressed to future generations.
The star of David is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism and the Jewish people. The nazis and their allies marked the Jews with the yellow star of David as a way to separate them from the rest of the population and to target them for persecution.
In many towns and villages, Jews were murdered and burried in mass graves.
To this day these graves remain unmarked and forgotten.
The Roma wheel evokes the Romani Indian heritage.
The sixteen-spoked wheel adorns the Romani flag and symbolises travel and fire.
During the Holocaust in Romania, freight railcars were used to transport Jews and Roma to their deaths. Many Jews from Bucovina and half of the Roma from the Old Kingdom were deported to Transnistria by train.
In Iași, two death trains left in 1941 for Călărași and Podu Iloaiei and carried 4,432 Jews of whom 2,594 perished. all Jews in northern Transylvania were deported by train to Auschwitz.
And no, my dear readers, this is not a chimney.
It's Coloana memoriala.
Each side of the column contains a single hebrew letter which taken together spell the word zachor (remember).
