My roots are in Kurikka, Southern Ostrobothnia

Kurikka is a small town in Southern Ostrobothnia. Nowadays it has about 14.000 inhabitants, but that's because there's recently been a consolidation of municipalities: the nearby town of Jurva became a part of Kurikka in 2009. As a result of this they changed the "old" Kurikka coats of arms to a much more boring one (click here to see the changes). This feels strange to me, but in time I'm sure I'll get used to it (no offense to the people of Jurva;)

What else about Kurikka? Well, the town has a small local news paper, Kurikka-lehti. Wikipedia gloats about the fact that Kurikka has the most Mensa members in the whole world! But of course that should be seen in proportion to the amount of people in Kurikka;) Although I do remember that Kurikka also has a higher murder rate than New York, when you also put that into propotion, but I can't find that in Wikipedia.. ;)

So, this is the home town of my mother, her siblings and her parents. I've also lived in Kurikka and I went to the local junior high school and high school there 1994-1997. (My father's side comes from Kauhajoki, also in Southern Ostrobothnia. Kauhajoki made global headlines after a school shooting in 2008).

The Easter traditions in Ostrobothnia are somewhat peculiar and often the Easter festivities end up in the national news. Here are some things that differ from the "national" Easter festivities.

Traditions live strong in Ostrobothnia and one of the most important one is (for the children) to dress up as witches and go around "trick or treating" on Easter Saturday (in other parts of Finland the children do this on Palm Sunday). They are dressed up in colorful clothes, traditionally as "little old ladies" with head scarves, long skirts, and their faces are painted "ugly" with freckles, blackened teeth and an excessive amount of rouge:) Nowadays halloween costumes and other masquerade accessories (that is, children dressed up as cats, bunnies and other Easter related creatures) are common.

The children go from door to door and when someone opens the door (usually the familiar neighbors) , they say a blessing for the house to chase away all evil spirits. They offer a decorated branch/twig of willow or birch in return for a treat, usually candy or money. This is my "poetic" translation of the blessing the children say at the door (there probably are other versions, this is the one I've been taught):

"Virvon varvon, tuoreeks terveeks, tulevaks vuodeks. Vitsa sulle, palkka mulle."

I whisk, I whip (whisking the twigs back and forth by the doorway:), briskness and health to you, for the year at hand. A branch of spring for you, a treat for me.

Unfortunately I didn't get to greet any mini-witches on Saturday!:( Mom had gotten candy for them, too, but I guess mom doesn't have children living in the nearby houses (most of the neighbors are elderly). Since we didn't get any colorful branches from children, my sister wanted to make new ones for mom. And so we did:)

On Saturday evening the main attraction in Southern Ostrobothnia are the Easter bonfires. The bonfires are an old pagan rite - the Christian holidays are, as you probably know, often related to old pagan rites, because the heads of church wanted to replace the pagan beliefs and traditions with Christian ones. The purpose of the Easter bonfires is to chase evil spirits away, but, in the old days (in the 17th century) some of persons accused of witchcraft were burnt in bonfires. According to a Finnish study about Finnish witch hunt, 2000 people were accused of witchcraft.

Me and my mom have a tradition to drive around in the villages to see the different bonfires. Unfortunately there aren't that many bonfires anymore, for example the one in my mother's home village hasn't been lit in many years. But we still take a drive - it's also a drive down memory lane...

Here are a few of the photos from my Easter in Kurikka.

This red house is my grandparent's old house. They sold it when my grandfather died:(
In the background, on the hill, lookout tower of Loukajanvuori.

Our transport:)

Most likely a haunted house in my mom's home village... :/

Detail of the old house.

Detail 2 of the old house.

Easter bonfire in the village Tuiskula.