Having written yesterday about coping with a winter lockdown, I have recalled a chat that I had with a Finnish guy on the 8 hour long train journey south from the Arctic Circle at Rovaniemi to the capital city of Helsinki during my trip to Arctic Finland and Arctic Norway in June and July 2019.
During our chat about the many things that make up his beautiful country, he tried to explain sisu to me.
Sisu is a Finnish concept described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience and hardiness and is held by Finns themselves to express their national character. During the brutal Winter War of 1939 to 1940, the Finnish perseverance in the face of the invasion by the Soviet Union popularised sisu.
In Finland, they say “Finns go through even a grey rock” and “Arctic nature has given us guts” …. that is sisu .
Source: Finland emojis
Sisu is generally considered not to have a literal equivalent in English but an understanding of it seems to me to be relevant to the current challenges that our local communities, our country and the world have faced for several months and will continue to face for the foreseeable future.
Reading about sisu again led me to a more amusing solution for coping with the social distancing and self-isolation of a winter lockdown …. kalsarikänni.
Kalsarikänni literally means “drinking at home, alone, in your underwear” 😀.
In Finland, this is a fully fledged, nationally celebrated pastime and not the sign of a minor emotional breakdown and, to be honest, if your winters consisted of -30ºC temperatures, a huge amount of snow and ice and no sunshine or daylight for several months, you would probably spend a fair amount of time drinking at home in your pants as well 😀.
Source: Finland emojis
So, after our understanding of Danish hygge which reached us in 2016 and Swedish lagom which reached us in 2017, we have a few more Scandi concepts to get to grips with!
💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature
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