Laskiainen
{{Short description|Finnish celebration}}
{{italic title}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
File:Winter activities on ice.jpg
{{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} ({{IPA|fi|ˈlɑskiɑi̯nen}}) is the Finnish celebration of what is known in the English-speaking world as Shrove Tuesday.{{cite book |title=Studia Fennica: Folkloristica |date=1992 |publisher=Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura |isbn=978-951-717-938-6 |page=85 |language=en}} It is often described as a "mid-winter sledding festival".
Ecclesiastically, {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} is a part of Shrovetide and is a Lutheran celebration just prior to the beginning of Lent, the 40-day season of repentance in Christianity.{{cite web |title=Shrovetide, Ash Wednesday and Lent |url=https://evl.fi/en/our-faith/worship-and-life-events/church-year/shrovetide-ash-wednesday-and-lent/ |publisher=Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland |access-date=7 April 2024}} In Northern Europe, this tradition has been practiced from at least the 7th century onward, and in Catholic countries—in the form of carnivals—even before that.
{{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} in Finland
=Etymology=
The etymology of the word {{Lang|fi|laskiainen}} is uncertain. Candidates for the source of the word have been {{Lang|fi|laskeutua}} ({{Gloss|to descend}}, as in descent to fasting) or {{Lang|fi|laskea}} ({{Gloss|to count}}, as in counting days until Easter).Oja, Heikki: Aikakirja 2007, p. 147. Almanac office of the University of Helsinki, 2007. {{ISBN|952-10-3221-9}}. [http://almanakka.helsinki.fi/aikakirja/Aikakirja2007kokonaan.pdf Online version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110322045417/http://almanakka.helsinki.fi/aikakirja/Aikakirja2007kokonaan.pdf|date=22 March 2011}} (PDF), accessed on 23 April 2010.Kolehmainen, Taru: [http://www.kotus.fi/index.phtml?s=2555 Pääsiäisen "laskiainen"?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315112509/http://www.kotus.fi/index.phtml?s=2555 |date=15 March 2012 }}, Helsingin Sanomat, Kieli-ikkuna, 22 March 2008. Accessed on 7 March 2011. According to a third proposal, the word comes from the old Romance term {{Lang|roa|carne lasciare}} ({{Gloss|to leave meat}}), with the latter part having changed into a Finnish form.Renkonen, W. O.: Kulttuurin avainsanoja: Miten ne syntyvät ja kehittyvät, p. 28. Porvoo Helsinki: WSOY, 1954.
As {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} is called {{Lang|sv|fettisdag}} ({{Gloss|fatty Tuesday}}) in Swedish after the French name Mardi Gras, one possible explanation for the Finnish name is simply {{Lang|fi|läskitiistai}} ({{Gloss|fatty Tuesday}}). The Finnish word {{Lang|fi|läski}} comes from the Swedish word {{Lang|sv|fläsk}}, meaning {{Gloss|pork, pork fat}}. {{Lang|sv|Fläsktisdag}} is also part of Swedish culinary traditions.
=Traditions=
File:Cream puff.jpg, a traditional {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} dessert ]]
The traditions of {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} consist largely of merrymaking and feasts.
Many of the Finnish {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} traditions are probably based on an old work feast, where women stopped the winter tasks of working linen, hemp and wool and spinning them into yarn.Vilkuna, Kustaa: Vuotuinen ajantieto: Vanhoista merkkipäivistä sekä kansanomaisesta talous- ja sääkalenterista enteineen. 8th edition (1st edition 1950). Helsinki: Otava, 2002. {{ISBN|951-1-13320-9}}. Surviving old {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} traditions include downhill sled riding and riding a sled around a pole. {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} is no longer connected with the growth of flax, but is instead a feast of saying goodbye to the dark winter and waiting for spring.Nieminen, Kirsti: [https://archive.today/20031022034346/http://www.ajasto.fi/ajastaika/2002-1/Laskiainen%20laulattaa,%20siansorkka%20naurattaa "Laskiainen laulattaa, siansorkka naurattaa"] (archived). Ajastaika 1/2002, Ajasto. Accessed on 15 February 2015.
After the Reformation, Finns no longer observed obligatory fasting, but many beliefs and restrictions stayed in the people's minds. {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} remained a peasant work feast, most importantly as a day belonging to women's work. An ancient European New Year's Day is situated around {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}}, which has led to many folk beliefs and spells connected to it in historical Finland. Work had to be stopped early in the afternoon on {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}}, in order for work to succeed for the rest of the year. The time for sauna was during daylight and bathers had to be quiet in the sauna.[https://www.finlit.fi/fi/tietopaketit/vuotuisjuhlat/paasiainen/paasiaistietoa/laskiainen Vuotuisjuhlat: Laskiainen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207072421/https://www.finlit.fi/fi/tietopaketit/vuotuisjuhlat/paasiainen/paasiaistietoa/laskiainen |date=7 February 2019 }}. Helsinki: Finnish literature society. Accessed on 6 February 2019.
==Food==
Food items typically enjoyed in Finland in {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} include in many cases pea soup with ham, and cheeses.
In the old times, {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} was a time to eat hearty amounts of meat, because the next opportunity to eat meat only came on Easter after fasting. Traditional {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} foods included fatty {{Lang|fi|rieska}} bread and meat soup. The {{Lang|fi|rieska}} bread was made from barley and spiced with pork fat. The meat soup was cooked from peas and rye grain and spiced with pig feet or pig head.{{Cite book |last=Vuorela |first=Toivo |title=Suomalainen kansankulttuuri |date=1975 |publisher=WSOY |isbn=9789510071908 |location=Porvoo, Helsinki |language=fi}} The soup was also called pig foot soup.
Desserts are also an integral part of {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}}. The best-known {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} dessert, often enjoyed either with coffee or tea, is laskiaispulla, which is a sweet roll filled with almond paste or strawberry jam, and whipped cream.[http://www.kotikokki.net/reseptit/nayta/47156/MAKOISAT%20LASKIAISPULLAT/ MAKOISAT LASKIAISPULLAT – Resepti | Kotikokki.net], www.kotikokki.net. Accessed on 22 January 2021. This pastry started becoming common in the 19th century.Karjalainen, Sirpa: Juhlan aika: Suomalaisia vuotuisperinteitä. Helsinki: WSOY, 1994. {{ISBN|951-0-22920-2}}.
There were also beliefs about food. Most importantly, food had to be fatty. The more fat glistened on people's fingers and mouths, the more milk the cows gave and the fattier the pigs got, the better. Greasy fingers should not be wiped clean; instead the grease had to be left to clean away on its own. This guaranteed good skills with a scythe. Those who licked their fingers would wound themselves with a scythe. When food was left on the table for the whole day, this guaranteed plenty of food for the rest of the year.Savolainen, Irma: [https://archive.today/20060721185739/http://www.hel2.fi/kaumuseo/vuodenkierto/laskiainen/laskiainen.html Laskiainen ja tuhkakeskiviikko] (archived page). City Museum of Helsinki. Accessed on 15 February 2015.
{{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} in North America
File:The ice slide at Laskiainen in Palo, Minnesota.jpg
In North America too, it is traditional in {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} to have a meal of split pea soup with ham, and for amusement – as in Finland – to slide down a hill on either snow-covered or iced tracks, often on toboggans.
One of the places where {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} is celebrated outside Europe in form of an annual festival is the community of Palo, located between Aurora and Makinen on the shores of Loon Lake in Minnesota. With this celebration, Palo is the home for one of the longest continuously held annual Finnish-American festivals in the United States,[http://www.finnfaca.org/facamembership.html Laskiainen], Finnish American Cultural Activities. others being e.g. various Saint Urho's Day festivals held each 16 March both in Canada and the United States, and the FinnFest USA festivals, which have taken place in locations throughout the United States, typically hosted by communities with connections to Finnish-American cultural history.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}
Many Finnish-North-American groups and clubs host various {{Lang|fi|Laskiainen}} celebrations, but the one which developed in Palo in the 1930s is notable for both its size and longevity.All around the year: holidays and celebrations in American life By Jack Santino (starting on page 87)