Interview with grandparents
Finland
There were many pupils in 8 E whose grandparents are dead so I got only a few answers from their grandparents. The other pupils interviewed their parents but those results are not included here.
The first granny was born in 1939 so she was fifteen in 1954 and already worked as a maid in Juuka. It was the time of depression so they didn't have much to eat. They didn't eat breakfast, but for lunch they had potatoes, brown gravy and bread. The next meal was at 3 pm. Then they ate for example potato casserole which had potato, meat or rutabaga (Swedish turnip or swede) in it, and bread. In the evening they drunk coffee and ate some Danish pastries. This granny wasn't allowed to drink coffee, except on special occasions. Normally young people weren't allowed to drink coffee before they had had their confirmation. On Sundays they ate rice porridge with rutabaga pasties (rutabaga baked inside soured rye dough). At Easter they ate a roast with vegetables and mämmi for desert. Mämmi is a Finnish Easter pudding made of malt, molasses and rye flour seasoned with orange rind, which is then matured in the oven until it is sweet. At Christmas they slaughtered a pig and made a big oven-baked ham for the whole family. The ham was eaten with potatoes, carrot- and rutabaga casserole. Sometimes there was also a Karelian meat stew. For dessert they had mixed fruit soup or rice porridge. When they had guests they had the same meals as normally. At baptism they just had coffee and confirmation was not celebrated with food. At a funeral they ate casserole foods and roast and at a wedding a cake with mead as the drink.
The second grandparent was born in 1937 so he was at the age of 15 in 1952. They had breakfast, lunch, snack and supper. For breakfast they had tea and rye bread, for lunch meat or fish and for supper rye bread with home made natural yoghurt. On a Sunday they didn't have anything special. During bigger celebrations they had roast with Karelian pies with egg butter and at a funeral for example a sandwich cake as a salty alternative, and cake, sweet buns and cookies for example spoon cookies. When they had guests, coffee with sweet buns, cakes and cookies was offered.
The third grandparent was fifteen years old in 1942. She ate different kinds of soups and bread. For breakfast she had bread and milk. For lunch she had meat soup and for dinner potatoes and gravy. On Sundays they ate meat prepared in different ways. For celebrations they had almost the same foods as the others, Karelian pies and Karelian meats stew, at weddings a good cake was a must.
One of the grandparents comes from Northern Finland, so she had a bit different foods. For breakfast she ate porridge, for lunch she had meat soup and rieska, flat unleavened barley bread. On Sundays they had rice porridge before noon. In the summer they ate viili, processed sour whole milk, for lunch and in the evening they had some fish. At Easter they made mämmi themselves and they slaughtered a calf and had a veal roast. When they had guests, they had sweet rolls with coffee. At a funeral they ate meat stew, mixed fruit soup, coffee with leipäjuusto, a Lappish cheese baked in front of the fireplace.
The first communion takes place during confirmation in the Lutheran Church so it is not celebrated separately. There is no time of fasting (it is voluntary so not many do that) in the Lutheran church (82, 5 % of the people). The Orthodox Church (1, 1% of the people) has the time of fasting, 40 days before Easter. During that time they avoid meat products but eat other products. The great fast ends at Easter night with a huge meal with lamb, pasha and kulitsa, a sweet cake baked with raisins. During the 1940s when my own parents were born, people were very poor in the rural areas and they grew a lot of their vegetables and fruits, basically apples, and berries themselves. They also used to pick mushrooms and berries in the forest in order to get supplementary food and especially vitamins.
Hopefully this gives you some idea of the Finnish food culture. Go also to virtual.finland.fi and you'll find a lot of information on Finland. Best regards, Susanna Huttunen