Last Sunday Finns celebrated the Christian holiday of laskiainen, also known as Mardi Gras in many parts of the world. This holiday prepares for the 40 day fast before Easter. On laskiainen people used to eat a lot of meat and fatty food, because during the following fast one was not supposed to eat meat (hence the word carneval from latin carne vale "leave the meat"). Also, eating greasy, fatty food was believed to make the cattle give lots of milk and to make the pigs big and fat.

There were other beliefs as well, many of which had to do with agriculture. People used to go sledding, and the farther you would go on your sled, the taller your linen would grow. When sledding, people called out for "long linens, fine hemp, rutabegas big as plates and swedes as big as ends of logs!". If women wore their hair down and brushed it often, the linen was to grow tall, clean, white and shiny. Today families still go sledding on laskiaissunnuntai (Sunday) or -tiistai (Tuesday). Many cities/villages organize winter carnevals with sledding, hoijakka (see picture below), snowmobile and pony rides for kids. A hoijakka is a sled that is attached to a long pole. A person or two are needed to push on the other end of the pole to give a fast ride for the other one sitting in the sled.

And to avoid going home hungry, you can treat yourself to pea soup, sausage and a special laskiaispulla, a sweet bun with raspberry jam (or almond paste, which I don't like) and whipped cream in the middle (yum yum).

We were in Kajaani last weekend and Aleksi, Otso, Emett and my dad went to the laskiais carneval in Kajaani. They were sledding pretty fast and far: there was a sledding competition to see who went the fastest. The organizers had brought a radar (like the ones the police use) and Aleksi went as fast as 20 km/h! Otso and Emett together got up to 25 km/h but you were not allowed to go together if you wanted to compete. Aleksi also went on a hoijakka and a snowmobile ride. They had a good time, although the boys got a little cold at the end.