It's that time of year again when we hoist up the flag, sing patriotic songs, and watch the president shaking hands with celebrities on TV; not forgeting of course the superb excuse for err... sensible consumption of alcohol. Although the actual day is on the 6th, my independence day shennanigans began a day earlier, when our school held its celebrations; the 6th being a national holiday. Everyone was required to dress smartly, so I took out my suit and raided my dad's formidable, businessman wardrobe for a suitable tie and overcoat. Unfortunately the program was to begin at 9:30, which meant we had our first class. After that, it was a moment of milling around the hall marveling at each others smart attire, then heading outside to the flagpole to find them  obviously cold.  Outside  we hoisted the flag up in silence, sang a song, and shuffled back in. All in all the manouvers to and from the flagpole having lasted longer than the time there.

Move manouvering followed as we were all sent to our home rooms, where class by class we returned to the hall to shake the hands of some student council fellows, and then grabbing a glass of Pommac, a type of shampagne for kids, but far more dignified. We endured a predictable speech, and gave a toast to our independence. Formal dancing ensued, and was most enjoyable despite the stiffling heat, shoddy management of the music, and the too short a time allocated for it.  All this was modelled after a similar celebration hosted by the president for various important people and an assortment of celebrities. This is aired on TV, and is apparenlty interesting. The party is also a veritable feast for the media, who scrutinize every celebrity, what clothes they wear, and why they retired relatively early.

Later on in the day, after on obligatory quiz (eased by the people going to wikipedia on ther mobiles) and a surprisingly good buffet (including a bowl of undefended chocolates... hah hah haa.... suckers...) we had the actual celebration. This featured several musical performances (both brilliant and hideous), a few speeches, and finished with us singing the National anthem. Later that day our family friends came over for an independence dinner, and thus independence day was spent recovering. Traditionally on independence day a famous Finnish war movie about the war against the Soviet Union is shown on TV. I watched it last independence day, and as a patriotic finn I should probably recommend it to you, if it weren't for the fact that I barely remember anything and pretty much missed most of the dialogue since most of it is in accented period slang.

Since we only have a set number of days off school a year, having the Friday off would mean an additional school day somewhere else. So instead the whole school went to see a movie in Helsinki and passed it off as a school day. This movie was again about the war, the continuation war to be precise. In fact, the whole time around independence day is spent remembering the war, honouring the veterans, feeling proud and always marveling at the amazing feat which Finland accomplished. The best part of the movie was the beginning, when the camera zoomed into a map and a cool orchestral track boomed up. "Wow, something cool is going to happen." I though. Unfortunately I was wrong, leaving that feeling the best part of the movie. Apparently the director fell seriously ill, and some poor old sod had to finish the movie for him, leaving it a plotless mess of unimaginative dialogue and short, individual skirmishes. The final battle, which the movie essentially led to should have been amazing, but was instead represented by some artillery shells falling on a forest.