Winter Holiday

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Lesson Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the Culture Class- Holidays in Finland Series at FinnishPod101.com. In this series, we’re exploring the traditions behind Finnish holidays and observances. I’m Eric, and you're listening to Season 1, Lesson 17, Winter Holiday. In Finnish, it’s called talviloma.

Finnish schools hold a week-long winter vacation around the transition from February to March. This winter vacation is known as a Skiing Holiday, which is hiihtoloma in Finnish.

In this lesson, we will learn how Finnish school children and students spend their winter holiday.

Now, before we get into more detail, do you know the answer to this question-

Do you know which resorts are the most popular destinations during winter vacation in Finland these days?

If you don't already know, you’ll find out a bit later. Keep listening.

Winter vacation has a history dating back to 1926. At that time, a gymnastics teacher known as Santeri Hirvonen suggested a week-long skiing vacation for children, as a counterbalance to working indoors. The children would get fresh air and more energy to study while skiing and exercising outdoors on the snowy mountains of early spring.

The skiing vacation was introduced to schools in 1933. Nowadays, this winter vacation is held mainly in elementary schools, high schools, and vocational schools.

The time this winter vacation falls varies by county. Holidays are staggered over three weeks, in order to avoid peaks particularly in skiing resorts, known in Finnish as laskettelukeskus. As a rule, winter vacations are scheduled for weeks 8, 9, and 10, starting from southern Finland in week 8 and ending in Lapland in week 10.

Nowadays, though the emphasis upon skiing has decreased, many people still participate in winter sports during winter vacation. Downhill skiing, known as laskettelu, snowboarding, or lumilautailu, cross-country skiing, or maastohiihto, ice skating, or luistelu and sledding, or mäenlasku are some of the most popular pastimes during the vacations. Many families also take the opportunity to travel to warm holiday destinations or visit spas domestically.

Parents do not always get the winter vacation off from work at the same time as their children. Therefore, cities make sure to arrange a lot of activities for children during vacations, such as ski schools, gaming events, and a variety of extracurricular academic courses.

Now it's time to answer our quiz question-

Do you know which resorts are the most popular destinations during winter vacation in Finland these days?

In addition to the ski resorts in Finnish Lapland, resorts like those in the Canary Islands, Phuket in Thailand, and Disneyland Paris entice the most holidaymakers. The popularity of the Canary Islands is explained by the fact that they are warm even in the winter and the time difference, or aikaero, between them and Finland is small.