P207 - Finland

Exotic Finland

Finland, officially the Republic of Finland is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland. The capital city is Helsinki.

Around 5.3 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern part of the country. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. The native language for most of the population is Finnish, a member of the Finno-Ugric language family most closely related to Estonian, and is one of only four official EU languages not of Indo-European origin. The other official language of Finland, Swedish, is the mother tongue of 5.5 percent of the population.Finland is a democratic, parliamentary republic with a mostly Helsinki-based central government and local governments in 348 municipalities. A total of a million residents live in Greater Helsinki (including Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa) and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other major cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Kuopio and Lahti.

Finland was historically a part of Sweden and from 1809 an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire. Finland's declaration of independence from Russia in 1917 was followed by a civil war, wars against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and a period of official neutrality during the Cold War. Finland joined the United Nations in 1955, the OECD in 1969, and the European Union in 1995 and participates in the Eurozone. Finland has been ranked the second most stable country in the world, in a survey based on social, economic, political, and military indicators.

Finland has good results in many international comparisons of national performance such as the share of high-technology manufacturing, public education, health care, the rate of gross domestic product growth, and the protection of civil liberties.

芬蘭共和國（芬蘭語：Suomi）是北歐國家，陸地上與瑞典、挪威和俄羅斯接壤，西南面被波羅的海環繞，東南部為芬蘭灣，西面則為波的尼亞灣。

芬蘭嚴峻的氣候條件以及特殊的地理位置和歷史，使芬蘭人形成了極富北歐特色的民族性格和文化。芬蘭人性格內斂，行事低調，但實際上內心充滿民族自豪感，在全球化的今天並不隨波逐流，而是堅定的維護著自己的傳統文化。

芬蘭有很多著名的藝術家：偉大的音樂家西貝流士開創了民族音樂的新紀元，被譽為芬蘭民族音樂之父；語言學家倫洛特搜集編撰的充滿傳奇色彩的民族史詩《卡勒瓦拉》成為世界文學史中最偉大的史詩之一；著名建築大師阿爾瓦·阿爾托以充滿芬蘭本土傳統浪漫風格的設計在現代主義建築設計潮流中獨樹一幟。芬蘭還有一批世界一流的藝術家。尤為特別的是，芬蘭極具本民族文化特色的設計風格使許多幾十年前的工藝品和建築物在現代人眼中仍是新穎別緻、富有想象力的傑作。出自芬蘭設計大師之手的作品大都以簡潔實用的設計風格、優質的材料和精美的做工而享譽世界。

芬蘭還是聖誕老人的故鄉。1927年芬蘭的兒童故事大王瑪爾庫斯在電台講故事時說，聖誕老人和兩萬頭馴鹿一起就住在芬蘭和蘇聯分界的拉布蘭省「耳朵山」上，正是因為有「耳朵」，聖誕老人才能在北極聽到世界上所有孩子的心聲。他的這種頗有感染力的浪漫推理獲得了世人認可，從此，故事中的「耳朵山」就成了聖誕老人的故鄉。在每年的平安夜孩子們在睡覺前將長筒襪掛在壁爐旁，然後帶著熱切的期盼進入夢鄉，聖誕老人晚上就會乘著馴鹿拉的雪橇，把聖誕禮物從壁爐煙囪中分發到孩子們的長筒襪裡。

除了藝術，芬蘭人還發明了桑拿浴，號稱芬蘭的國粹。芬蘭諺語說：先建桑拿，再搭房屋。桑拿是為數不多的進入世界語言範疇的芬蘭詞彙之一。芬蘭桑拿是一定完全用木材建造，其中一定包括蒸汽房、洗澡間和更衣室。芬蘭全國有不同大小桑拿上百萬間，平均每三個人就擁有一間桑拿房，密度是全球之冠。對到芬蘭旅遊的人來說，如果沒有洗過桑拿，就等於沒到過芬蘭。

References sources : Wikipedia