This year's in-person program will feature music and dancing from Finnish movies. Our guest speaker is Professor Andrew Nestingen, Department Chair, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington. A popular lecturer and writer on Finnish cinema and film authorship, Dr. Nestingen spoke on Tove Jansson and “Adapting the Moomins” at the February 2023 Festival of Finnish Films sponsored by the Finlandia Foundation Suomi Chapter in Bellingham, Washington. Dr. Nestingen's most recent book is The Cinema of Aki Kaurismäki: Contrarian Stories (2013) and another is Transnational Cinema in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition (2005).
The program will include performances by the Finnish Choral Society of Seattle, Swedish Singers of Seattle, Evergreen Livakat Kantele Players, and more. Finnish refreshments and coffee will be served.
The Kalevala Day tradition goes back to 1835, when the national epic of Finland, the Kalevala, was published for the first time by Elias Lönnrot. The Kalevala epic played an important part in developing Finland's national identity and Finnish language, art, and music. The first Kalevala Day was celebrated on February 28,1885. The Kalevala Day celebration continues to this day in Finland with cultural events.
The Finnish Choral Society of Seattle has maintained an Annual Kalevala Day since 1976 in Seattle, hosted at the Nordic Museum since 1982. During the pandemic, our Kalevala programs were presented virtually as video recordings on The Finnish Sauna in 2020, The Healing Power of Song in 2021, and The Finnish Kantele in 2022, which are now available for viewing through the choir website.
