The most popular programme on the Finnish TV is the Weather Forecast. There is a real-life meteorologist every night explaining what kind of weather there will be tomorrow and why.
We need to know for sure that the sun will rise tomorrow as well… As a matter of fact, in mid-winter the sun does not rise at all in Northern Finland…
It’s always safe to discuss the weather. Even Finns are capable of small talk, the subject being the current weather.
A typical Finnish “How do you do” is: “There has been some weather lately!”
This sentence really has no point. There is always some kind of weather. What we actually mean with that sentence is that the elements are not agreeable.
In summer, when the air finally gets warm and we have been pampered with a heatwave for a couple of weeks, the moaning starts: “ Oh my God how hot it is!!! How can you take this terrible heat? Wish it would cool down! This is a dreadful summer, it is too hot! We should get some refreshing rain!!!”
Come autumn, it will start raining. The next complaint is: “When will this awful rain stop? Is it gonna rain all the time? You can’t go anywhere or do anything, because of the constant rain” “ It is soooo cold and dark… and depressing” “If only it would be snowing and I’m hoping for a white Xmas…”
Wintertime and the living is not easy: “ When will it stop snowing? We are drowning in this horrible snow. The freezing temperature is killing me! I have frostbites and it is impossible to go outdoors…” I wish it was summer already! Winter is sooooo depressing…
Thank God, spring is finally here! “The sun is too bright, it makes my eyes hurt! This ghastly sleet! My feet are getting wet. Will it ever be summer?”
Oh goodness me!!!
“ - We have had no elecrticity foor a week, because the snowstroms broke off powerlines.”
“- Well, the weight of snow made our roof collapse…”
Complaining is a part of acceptable behaviour in Finland. It tells your neighbour that you don’t feel superior to them, since things are not going well for you. If you start bragging about how good life is, everybody thinks you are arrogant. Actually, it is a kind of competition about who is the one suffering more.
