I low high key hate knowing that an English language Christian hymn made to the tune of Finlandia is a thing that exists. It’s apparently not even the only one...
Finlandia (the full piece is much longer) and Finlandia Hymn is not about religion or your god. Shame on you for trying to claim what is not yours. You do not understand how much Finlandia means to us Finns, what it represents.
This is the Finlandia Hymn:
Translation of the lyrics (literal, rather than something you could sing) for your convenience:
Oi Suomi, katso, sinun päiväs’ koittaa Oh Finland, look, your day is dawning Yön uhka karkoitettu on jo pois The threat of night has already been banished away Ja aamun kiuru kirkkaudessa soittaa And the skylark of morning in brightness sings Kuin itse taivahan kansi sois’ As if the firmament itself rang Yön vallat aamun valkeus jo voittaa The brightness of morning already defeats the dominions of night Sun päiväs’ koittaa, oi synnyinmaa Your day is dawning, oh land of birth
Oi nouse, Suomi, nosta korkealle Oh rise, Finland, lift up high Pääs’ seppelöimä suurten muistojen Your wreathed head of grand memories Oi nouse, Suomi, näytit maailmalle Oh rise, Finland, you showed the world Sa että karkoitit orjuuden That you banished slavery Ja ettet taipunut sa sorron alle And that you did not bend under oppression On aamus’ alkanut, synnyinmaa Your morning has begun, land of birth
If you are not Finnish, you will not truly understand the significance of this song, but I’ll try to explain it anyway. This song...is hugely important to Finland, to us as a nation and people, to our very existence as an independent country.
This song is not our national anthem, but I’m willing to bet that if you ask a random bunch of Finns which of these two, the National Anthem or the Finlandia Hymn, they prefer and which one of them makes them feel more, the majority will say the Finlandia Hymn.
This song makes our chests tight with sorrow and yearning and pride, it makes us shed tears. We feel it in our very souls.
It is a song of bittersweet hope for freedom after centuries of oppression. Of yearning for the bright morning light after a dark and hopeless night. Of pride in what we have achieved and endured as a nation. That we even have a nation. Of hope for a bright and better future.
You cannot listen to it without being moved, without thinking of the hardships of our ancestors, without feeling thankful for those who were lost fighting for our freedom. Without mourning them.
It’s not called Finlandia for nothing. Jean Sibelius composed Finladia in 1899 when Russia ruled over Finland and was trying to extinguish us, replace what was Finnish with Russian. In Finnish, we call this period “the years of oppression”. We were not an independent country until the end of 1917.
Finlandia was written for a six piece nationalist performance in which each music piece represented a historical period. Finlandia was the sixth piece, Finland Awakens. Due to Russian censorship, it was also performed under fake names after.
Sibelius himself did not mean for Finlandia to be sung, but people began writing lyrics for the hymn part very early on, so he made a version for choir. The lyrics of what we today know as the Finlandia Hymn were written by V.A. Koskenniemi some forty years later during time when Soviet Union had just tried to invade our country. The lyrics reflect the mood of early 1900s: the struggle against oppression and the fight for our national identity. Sibelius himself approved these lyrics.
Since then, Finlandia Hymn has become one of the most, if not the most, important national songs of Finland. No other song evokes this much feeling in the Finnish people. The National Anthem pales next to it. If there was only one song to be performed on our Independence Day, it would be Finlandia. It often is Finlandia.
So you see, this song really, really is not about your god. Keep your Christian hands off it.
