Highest Independence Day medals go to Pauliine Koskelo and Christoffer Taxell

4,535 medals awarded; roughly 2,000 will attend Independence Day Reception on Sunday

Pauliine Koskelo

Christoffer Taxell

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Sunday is Independence Day in Finland, this year marking the 92nd anniversary of the decision to untie the bonds with Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution.
      The first actual celebration of the event was in 1919, and as a curiosity, for many years it was in fact secondary in importance to the 16th of May, the date on which the victorious White faction celebrated in Helsinki at the end of the bloody Civil War that followed hard on the heels of Independence.
     
Each year Independence Day is an opportunity for the country to reward its citizens for services rendered, and this year a total of 4,535 medals of various descriptions and orders will be handed out.
      The highest honours given this year, that of the Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland and the same award of the Order of the Lion of Finland, go respectively to the President of the Supreme Court Pauliine Koskelo and to the former Swedish People's Party leader and cabinet minister Christoffer Taxell, who is also currently Chancellor of Åbo Akademi, the chairman of the board of several Finnish companies including Finnair, and the chairman of a committee examining the reform of the Finnish Constitution.
      A total of 13 persons will receive the Pro Finlandia medal for services to the arts, including the popular actor Heikki Kinnunen and jazz pianist and composer Heikki Sarmanto.
     
The celebrations on Sunday will culminate in the annual Independence Day Gala Reception held in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki.
      Hosted by President Tarja Halonen and her husband Pentti Arajärvi, this is the nearest thing Finland gets to a glitzy gala ball.
      The 2,000 or so invited guests are drawn from a mixture of the good and great of the nation - former Presidents, ministers, MPs, business and union leaders, military and church representatives, the judiciary, and the diplomatic corps attached to Helsinki - and those who have been invited this year for some achievement during the past twelve months or through having in some way come into contact with President Halonen herself.
     
It is an ever-popular television event, both in the hope of catching a glimpse of someone you know (Finland is a small enough country for this to be relatively easy) and for the opportunity from one's sofa to applaud, appraise, and above all mock loudly the dress-sense of those who attend.
      Quite apart from the evening's entertainment, Independence Day is a public holiday. Since it happens to fall on a Sunday this year, it means that there will be no Sunday opening for the stores and shopping malls this weekend.
     
Candles are traditionally lit on window-sills to honour those who are no longer here and who gave their lives in the cause of Finnish independence, for example in the Winter War of 1939-40.
      The Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE also traditionally broadcasts The Unknown Soldier, a film from 1955 directed by Edvin Laine and based on Väinö Linna's iconic novel of the Second World War.
      The day's military aspect is added to by a parade, held in a different location each year. This year it will be in Tampere.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Independence Day celebrations pass off in traditional fashion (8.12.2008)

Links:
  Orders, decorations, and medals of Finland (Wikipedia)
  Independence Day Reception - History

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