Jyväskylä, 17.12.07

Maybe it’s just me, but I think Finnish words often have a perfectly appropriate sound corresponding to the meaning of the word. Take KAAMOS [KHA/mohs]. It does sound like something scary and depressing. Everyone kept warning me about it in October when I expressed my extreme happiness for my new Finnish life.

-It won’t last long. Just wait for KAAMOS!
-It’s OK now, but November’s almost here – and KAAMOS!
-Sure you’re laughing now, but just wait – KAAMOS is around the corner!

Kaamos is defined as “a time between December and January when the sun does not rise at all. But it is not dark all the time. White snow makes this period much lighter and this is also the best season seeing the amazing Northern Lights. It is actually a quite mystical period.” Of course, I’m way south in Jyväskylä, and we don’t have real kaamos. The sun today rose at 9:40 AM and it set at 2:46 PM. That gives us five hours of daylight. Well, if it is a cloudy day, I have to admit that most mornings I have absolutely no idea if it’s 5 AM or 9 AM if I haven’t set my alarm clock. So, we’re supposed to be suffering from SYYSVÄSYMYS (fall fatigue). I think I’m annoying my friends by not buying into it, but I don’t think it’s really that bad because . . .

. . . there’s the magic period of SININEN HÄMÄRÄ [SI/ni/nen HA/mah/rah).  My first years in California, I made a real effort to catch the SININEN HÄMÄRÄ, but it was hard because it only seemed to last for a few minutes. Here, it is a period – translatable as blue twilight. This is what I found on Wikipedia, . . . Due to the unusual, romantic quality of the ambient light at this time, twilight has long been popular with photographers and painters, who refer to it as the "blue hour", after the French expression l'heure bleue. With snow on the ground, everything is magically blue. I get Goosebumps walking in the woods, inhaling this blueness. The expression, SININEN HÄMÄRÄ, sounds like this soft time before the real evening and night to me. Taste it – say it a few times to test.

Because of limited sunlight, my Jyväskylä friends have been nagging me to start taking vitamins, at least vitamin D. Finally, last week, I headed off to the pharmacy, and after a discussion with the pharmacist, decided to go the traditional way – KALANMAKSAÖLJY [KAH/lan/mak/sa/ÖL/jye]. Doesn’t that sound like something really nasty? It’s cod liver oil, and it tastes so bad, it must be good. More importantly, that’s what my mom gave us kids in the winter when we were little. We were healthy kids, so it must work. Now every morning after I get out of bed, I take a spoonful of cod liver oil, followed by a small glass full of beautiful orange-color juice, TYRNIMEHU [TUR/neh/meh/hu]. The word has a sound of strength and vigor, doesn’t it! It’s sea-buckthorn juice, full of vitamin C.  

I’m convinced I’ll last fine until December 22, The Winter Solstice, only five days away. That day we’ll be celebrating our Rafael’s nameday. Also the days start getting longer . . . and longer . . . and longer . . . and I’ll have to figure out new additions to my diet to combat the next seasonal Finnish condition: KEVÄTVÄSYMYS . . . but that’s another story; I’ll report when it hits me.

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sininen hämärä

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tyrnimarjamehu