SMFI19 SCIENCE ENVIRONMENT CREATION JUMINKEKO

Juminkeko is home of the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic This place is dedicated to the collectionand preservation of Karelian and Finnish literary, oral and musical traditions as well as the revitalization of the many folkloric customs in Viena Karelia. The students watched, in the auditorium, a movie about „The birth of the Kalevala” and they saw an exhibition with „Symbolic pictures of the kalevala runes” made by Mira Martikainen.

Students had the opportunity to learn about the Finnish folk culture through traditional poetry and traditional songs called Kalevala. They also learned the important role these ballads have in expanding and using Finnish. Visiting the Kalevala Symbol Exhibition enabled the students to meet with ballad characters and a more precise understanding of these types of oral literature, that is literature spread by word of mouth.