MIDSUMMER/JUHANNUS: Things to Remember
|
|
This weekend brings the Midsummer Eve (Friday) and Midsummer Day celebrations.
For once this will actually fall close to the Summer Solstice, even though officially the celebration is of Juhannus or the saint’s day of St. John the Baptist (24th June in the calendar, but the public holiday is always held on the nearest Saturday).
As anyone who lives here can tell you, Midsummer is a very significant holiday, not least because it is the starting-gun for the summer vacation period during which Finland more or less closes down for the month of July.
Parliament goes into recess, companies reduce production, summer festivals of different shapes and sizes leap into action around the country, and there is a mass exodus to the summer cabin - first for the Midsummer weekend, and in many cases, to stay there for the next few weeks fishing and grilling sausages and reading whodunit novels, and - assuming there is a TV - watching the football.
Finland hangs out the “Closed” sign.
As with other major public holidays, Midsummer brings a number of restrictions on opening hours and public transport timetables that are good to know about in advance.
Here are the basics (but please do your own homework as well):
Shops and supermarkets can be open on June 20th (Friday) from 07:00-13:00, and will be closed all day on Saturday. On Sunday, under the summer opening-hour arrangements, grocery stores are permitted to open from 12-21.
It is probably not a good idea to assume that all shops will open on the Sunday, although technically they can.
People living in Helsinki can get foodstuffs between 7:00 and 22:00 on Friday and 10:00 and 22:00 on Saturday from the shops in the underground concourse beneath the main railway station.
Also the ABC stores at petrol stations, springing up around the country like mushrooms after rain, are likely to be open when nothing else is.
The Alko liquor stores will be open until 20:00 on Thursday but will shut their doors at 13:00 on Friday like everybody else, and will not open again until Monday.
Since Midsummer is considered to be a fairly “liquid” festival, you should expect the liquor stores to be busy-to-packed if you leave things until Friday.
Banks are open as normal on Thursday, but closed on Friday.
ATMs should work as normal over the weekend, but bear in mind there may be delays in restocking individual cashpoints if the money runs out.
Foreign exchange, if you need it, can be had from the Nordea and Sampo branches at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. The Nordea outlet there is open every day between 6:00 and 21:00, and the Sampo branch will be open 7-18 on Friday, 8-18 on Saturday, and 8-22 on Sunday.
There is also a Sampo foreign exchange point at Helsinki’s West Harbour open daily from 6:45-20:00, and Forex has a bureau de change in the main railway station open daily from 8:00-21:00.
Post offices will be open in Thursday as normal, but closed on Friday. The main post office in downtown Helsinki will be open briefly on Friday morning (until 12:00), and from 10-18 on Sunday.
Finnish Railways (VR) will operate normal local commuter train schedules (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, etc.) on Thursday, a Saturday service on Midsummer Eve, and a Sunday service on Saturday and Sunday.
Details from the VR site linked below or in Finnish from YLE’s teletext service, page 430.
Long-distance trains will follow a slightly different regime. On Thursday, trains will adhere to a normal Friday schedule. On Friday there will be a Saturday schedule in force, though certain departures will be cancelled. Midsummer Day sees Sunday services in use, but again be warned that some trains will be cancelled and others may replace them. Sunday itself has a normal Sunday timetable.
Clearly it is wise to CHECK beforehand.
The same advice goes for buses, trams and Metro trains in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.
As a basic rule, Friday will see Saturday timetables, but there will be some extra services, for example on the Helsinki City Transport (HKL) bus line 24 to and from Seurasaari, where there is a traditional Midsummer Eve celebration for those people who don’t head for the summer cottage.
For Helsinki and local area traffic, please check the YTV and HKL sites.
Long-distance buses will operate as normal on Thursday, and will adhere to Saturday timetables on Midsummer Eve until 14:00, after which services will be limited, and this will continue through Saturday. Sunday will see Sunday timetables (the S and SS departures).
Details from Matkahuolto, or from YLE teletext page 440.
In a real emergency, the 112 emergency number will always work, and you can get information on which health service units are open on (09) 10023 at all times around the clock. Most of the public health clinics will be closed on Friday through Sunday, but there will be A&E facilities provided, so check beforehand where they are.
Much the same advice goes for people needing a pharmacy. Yliopiston Apteekki at Mannerheimintie 96 will be open around the clock over the whole period, and the branch at Mannerheimintie 5 will be open from 7-24 every day.
Similar arrangements, with shorter opening hours, exist in Tapiola and in Myyrmäki and Tikkurila.
Once again, forewarned is forearmed.
If you get into trouble on the road, the Finnish Automobile and Touring Club (Autoliitto, AL) has a nationwide helpline number on 0200 8080 around the clock.
Be warned - traffic is likely to be very heavy by Finnish standards on roads leading out of the capital on Thursday (maybe even today as well), and the threatened go-slow protest by truckers will make life even more difficult if it materialises. Return traffic on the Sunday will be lighter, as many will be staying on at their cabins.
Helsingin Sanomat will appear on Friday 20th, but thereafter not until Monday 23rd June.
The International Edition will appear on Thursday, but after that will be going offline until late July, as the country settles into what will hopefully be a news-free snooze for the month of July.
One final point. Please try not to become a drowning statistic.
Every year at Midsummer, a distressing number of people either overestimate their swimming skills, underestimate the amount they have had to drink before plunging in from sauna, overestimate the depth of the water at the end of the jetty before diving headfirst, ignore the temperature of the lake (not likely to be too warm this year), or forget that it is not merely ecologically irresponsible to attempt to urinate off the back of a small rowing boat.
Please do not join them, or those who manage to spoil their weekend and that of the fire services by burning down their sauna.
More on this subject:
 SUMMER RECESS
Helsingin Sanomat
|
|
