With the end of the Olympics, our tour of Russia is over- but never fear, we're staying in the neighborhood (more or less) and heading northward to Scandanavia again, so get your Nokias at the ready because this week in vexillology, we've got the flag of Finland!
Interesting thing about Finland that I didn't know, was that it's only been an independent country relatively recently-their flag was adopted for national and civil usage on May 29th, 1918. It was part of Sweden from the 12th Century until 1809 when it was incorporated into the Russian Empire until the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 when it gained independence. This made World War II somewhat unusual from the Finnish point of view- they weren't really on one side or the other, instead fighting against the Soviets in the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944) and then the Lapland War where they changed things up and fought retreating Germans in 1944-1945. If anyone can think of a country (other than Italy, I guess) who fought both sides in World War II, let me know- because that's a rare distinction I think- made doubly so because the Finns fought everyone for their own reasons not out of any (at least not that I can see) particular affinity to either Axis or Allied causes. They were just lookin' out for number 1! And they managed to invent the Molotov Cocktail in the process though, so good for them!
The flag is simple: blue represents the blue skies and the thousands of lakes in Finland, while white recalls the snows of winter and its based on the Scandanavian cross design that you see in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. It was first used by a yacht club in Helsinki in 1861 and in a super cool custom the flag is flown from 6PM of Midsummer's Eve to 9PM of Midsummer's Day to symbolize the fact that darkness does not come to any part of Finland during midsummer's night.
So everybody, give it up for Suomi and put your hands together for Finland! And remember, until next time keep your flags flying, FREAK or otherwise!
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