Thread: Kalevalan päivä - Kalevala Day

I was just wondering what kind of significance Kalevala Day has in Finland.

Having never been in Finland on this day I wondered what goes on.

Are there grand celebrations or is a quieter affair where people simply reflect on the epic that is Kalevala?

I think the day after this day women ask men if they want to marry them...

Yeah, I heard it in Radio, and today my working mates have tried to explain it. If you are in a relationship (and the man don´t seem to think about asking the woman to get married), than every 4 years on the last day of February, it is the womens turn to get a decision

So if he wants to, everything is fine. But if he refuses to marry her, he has to by some nice expansice fabrics for the girl, for her getting a new dress...

(Now, my question to a finnish person: What the heck is THAT for? That the girl is pleased by something, instead of getting a husband? So that they don´t starting a fight and get singles on this issue? Or maybe for the girl, if her man has "no as in the trousers" for marriage, so she can get a new freind in her new nice dress? In which times this thing has developed?)

One of our workers was asked by his girlfriend... so today everybody started teasing him to by fabric

I started laughing when I was hearing the radio programm (on Radio Rock? Or was it Yle X?). The women alway started a big talk "well its so nice with you and we are living now together this and that long and blabla... (on and on...) Do you want to marry me?" And the guy was always taking a deep breath, saying "kyllä" and that it was. No comment or "yes, I love you too"