The strange park of Veijo Rönkkönen

If you were asked to name a statue from the top of your head, you’ll probably say “The Venus of Milo”, as it might be one of earliest encounters with sculpture we all had. But if you ask this question in the Finnish town of Parikalla, in the south-east of Finland and next to the Russian border, the answer will surely be the strange sculptures of Veijo Rönkkönen.

Two Sculptures from Veijo Rönkkönen
Women washing clothes. Two of the many sculptures you can find in this strange park. This photo and all the others were made by Mike Ancient with CC (by-nd-nc) license.

Different scenes

Who is Veijo Rönkkönen?

Veijo Rönkkönen (born in 1944 and passed away in 2010) was a Finnish artist and sculptor. During his youth, while working at a paper factory, he started to make sculptures. He finished his first sculpture in 1961 and continued sculpting all his life, finishing around 450 statues.

All these statues are now standing in the park-like garden of the house where he lived with his parents.

Veijo never stopped living in that house, and he was a man who loved being alone. By placing his statues in the park, he made them available for anyone to see, but he never came out to talk to any of the visitors. He instead left a guestbook with a sign asking visitors to leave a note.

Statues dancing and playing Kantele
The man here plays Kantele, a traditional Finnish instrument, while the ladies dance.

Some disturbing characters

A concrete tree with more humanoid statues

Veijo never agreed to lend his statues to museums or expositions. When asked about it, he said he must “check with the statues first”. They must have always said no, since up to today none of the statues have left their places in the garden.

In 2007, three years before his death, he won the Finlandia prize (a multi-disciplinar prize granted annually), but he didn’t attend the ceremony to receive it since he didn’t want to leave his house. It was received by his brother in his name.

The sculpture park of Veijo Rönkkönen

The park is the most important set of pieces of contemporary folk art of Finland. The facial expressions of the statues, made from concrete, are part of what makes this group of statues unique. Their expressions are scary, since they aren’t fully realistic: instead they come close to the Uncanny Valley. Some of them also have real human teeth, and sound effects that make the whole park even creepier.

The biggest part of the statue collection is formed by 200 statues in different yoga positions, something that Veijo Rönkkönen knew to perfection.

Statues of Veijo Rönkkönen doing yoga

Statues doing Yoga
Statues in different yoga positions.

The hair on this statue looks real

The exposition has turned into a tourist attraction for the little town of Parikalla. Around 25.000 people visit there every year and the new owners of the park after Veijo’s death have planned to make his park an even bigger attraction. To pique your curiosity, you can check out the entrance to the park with Google Street View, and see many more photos of Veijo Rönkkönen’s statues on Findart.fi.

Here is also a video in which some tourists make a tour through the park, showing the statues.

What do you think about these unsettling statues? Which one is your favorite?

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Unikeonpäivä: Sleepy Head Day in Finland

Every 27th of July is the National Sleepy Head Day in Finland (Unikeonpäivä). That means one thing: the last sleeping family member must be woken up with water.

How the water gets to the person (or how the person gets to the water) is a matter of style and personal choice. The victims of the Unikeonpäivä find themselves awakened by a bucket of water poured over their heads or by being carried over to a river, sea or lake and thrown in.


You better set your alarm on on Sleepy Head Day. This girl didn’t. Source (CC: by)

How the Sleepy Head Day started in Finland

The tradition goes like this. In the Middle Ages 6 Christians slept in a cave for 200 years. They ended up there hiding from a roman emperor and all they could do is sleep. The idea, and the tradition, is that if the Finns oversleep on that day, they’ll might end up sleeping 200 years as those Christians did.

Another popular belief is that if it rains on Sleepy Head Day, it will rain the following 7 weeks. And no Finn would want something like that: it is Summer and it should stay this way. “Last Winter was too long, and a new Winter is fast approaching”, they might think.

It seems that this tradition took roots in Finland in the 6th century A.C. And although it has not caught up evenly throughout the country, there are some places that take it very seriously. Like the town of Naantali.

Sleepy Head Day in Naantali

Naantali – the Finnish town near Turku which most known attraction is the a theme park about The Moomins – has a different tradition for Unikeonpäivä.

They get up extra-early on July 27th and pick a well-known person from Naantali, a local celebrity. They will take this person out of their bed and home and he or she will be thrown into the water.

This happens when you throw something in the water. Like a Sleepy Head. Source (CC: by)

The most famous person ever thrown in the water

One of the best country-wide known Unikekos was thrown into the water on 2004.

That day, the people took the Unikeko out of bed, rolled him up in his sheets by previous Unikekos, and carried him to the water. They threw him in with fanfare. When the Unikeko got out of the water, people saw who he was and gasped. He was the husband of the Finnish President Tarja Halonen, and a law teacher at the University of Joensuu.

It is official: Naantali has the best Sleepy Head Day in the country.

Have you experienced a Sleepy Head Day in Finland? Are you a late sleeper? I know I am. Let us know your perspective in the comments!

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Tove 100 – an homage to Moomin’s author

This year is the 100 anniversary of the birth of one of the most popular and celebrated Finnish authors: Tove Jansson, creator of those white hippo-like creatures, the Moomins (in Finnish language: muumi).

This year, therefore, there are plenty of events to remember Tove Jansson and to pay an homage to her and her contribution to Finnish literature, design and illustration. One of her creations surpasses all the others: The beloved Moomins.

Illustration about Tove Jansson with ther Moomins
Illutration of Tove Jansson with her Moomins. Source (CC: by)

The Moomins

If you don’t know the Moomins (or moomintrolls, as they’re also called) yet, they are a family of hippo-like creatures and their friends. Their adventures have appeared in books, comics, movies and even an animated TV series.

They look like this:

Moomin chairs
The Moomin characters, chair version. Source (CC: by-sa)

Tove 100

The homage to the 100th anniversary of Tove Jansson’s birth is called Tove 100. A number of special events all around the globe are happening for this anniversary. All of them can be found on the official website Tove100.com. You can search for events in your country there. Talking about English speaking countries, there are plenty of events about Tove Jansson and the Moomins in London. Check out that link.

I will nonetheless tell you about the most interesting events of them all, for me.

Little My tote bag
Little My always had it clear. Source (CC: by-sa)

The main event and maybe the most important of them all happens in Helsinki. It is the Atheneum museum exposition (on the street Kaivokatu 2), called “Tove Jansson art exhibition” that is currently on and will end on September 7th 2014. After that date the collection will move to Japan, where Tove Jansson is very popular too.

There is currently a second exhibition worth visiting for all Moomin-fans: The Moomin Arabia Mug exhibition. Arabia is one of the flagship design companies of Finland and the exposition will go on until August 31st. The street is Hämeentie 135, where the Arabia museum is located, and the exhibition is called “Mugs with history”.

Moomin mug
Coffee tastes better served in a Moomin mug.

More homages to Tove Jansson

Finally, all of Finland celebrates Tove with two more things.

The first one is that the Katajanokka park, next to the Orthodox cathedral of Helsinki, will change its name to “Tove Jansson Park”. The Katajanokka district is where she lived in Helsinki.

The second is this series of stamps that the Post Office of Finland (Posti) has introduced this year:

Tove Jansson Stamps

Have you been or will you go to any of the Tove 100 events? What’s the Tove Jansson creation that you like or that it inspires you most?

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A hose: the strange device next to every Finnish toilet

It’s been a long time since I wanted to write about the hose that exists next to each Finnish toilet. Something like this:

A strange apparatus to have in a bathroom: a hose. Source: Oras

The first time I arrived in Finland, many years ago, I was surprised by this strange apparatus. I didn’t have time to test it during my first days, so I didn’t know what was it for. I continued ignoring the hose on the following days, but with a veil of suspicion: I was afraid to know. Finally I gathered the courage and, after testing the hose, I still had my doubts.

A hose on a Finnish bathroom

There are several theories of its use, from what I could gather asking other people. From being the hose the substitute of the bidet, to it being used as a tool for an easy bathroom cleaning operation (this theory is mine and I’d like to think it is used for that).

The shower hose near the toilet
Threatening the WC

As I said I used it mainly for cleaning the entire bathroom. The after-shaving operation leaves the sink clean, and the floors are clean in an instant thanks to this hose or shower-head. You can also clean the toilet with it, but let’s not get into details here.

The Finnish toilet hose or shower
All the power in your hands

If you want to activate this Finnish WC shower or hose, you have to open the tap of water from the sink and press the button that the hose has. In this way, the water stream starts coming out of the hose with good water pressure. Personally I think the button-activated mechanism supports everyone elses’ theory of the toilet shower as a substitute of the bidet, but I prefer not to adopt this version. For the moment.

I have seen this hose not only in private toilets – at friends’ houses – but also next to toilets in bars, restaurants, bus and train stations, and other places, although not in each and every one of them.

What’s your experience with the Finnish toilet hose? It is definitely one of the things that surprise foreigners in Finland.

Update 2018: The secret is revealed. Unveiled. If you want to know for sure the use of the toilet shower, you can find it here.

Update 2020: I found this amazing gallery of photos from the Finnish company Oras, which manufactures it. Its commercials seem to be legendary and, after seeing them myself, I don’t disagree.

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