Flag Day

Jitter's note: For the purposes of this fic we assume the Expedition set out sometime around mid-November, anyways in time for the team to get to know each other before December 5th.

Early December, somewhere in Denmark.

“Mikkel, could you spare me two candles?”
“Why do you need candles, short stuff?” Sigrun interjected. “Our power seems fine! Are you expecting problems with the engine?”
“Oh, no, the Cattank is in great shape! It’s just that it will be Flag Day soon.”
“Flag Day? What is that?”
“Well, it’s a day when we Finns celebrate Finland and our flag.”
“Your flag?”
“Well, yes, and how it represents the way Finland protects us from the grosslings. White for the snow and ice of winter, and blue for the lakes which guard our settlements.”
“Oo, like syttende mai? But why is it in December?”

“Syttende mai?”
“Yes, syttende mai! Norway Day! We have great celebrations! Of course we do, we are the most best country in the world! Mikkel, have you ever been to Norway at syttende mai?”
“Yes, I have actually. You are right, it’s a proper celebration with the parades and all. Ours is less lively, raising of the Danneborg and singing.”

“Yes, Tuuri, you should come to Dalsnes in the spring and celebrate syttende mai with us! All of you should! There are parades and music, and everybody eats treats and waves their flags! The whole town is red and white and blue! I was on duty last year so I think I should be free next May. Then I can wear my bunad!”
“You have a bunad? Women’s bunad? Really?”
“Of course I do!”
“Well, well, that’s interesting. Sigrun Eide in a dress! That would be a sight worth seeing.” Mikkel was looking amused.
“I don’t usually care for dresses, but the bunad is a different thing! Everybody wears theirs! And anyways I take my blade and a pistol too.”
“Of course you do” Mikkel admitted.

“Anyways, it’s great fun. You definitely should come!”
“Oo, it sounds nice!” Tuuri responded. “I’ll be happy to come see the celebrations if I get the chance!”
“So, your Flag Day isn’t like that?” Sigrun asked Tuuri.
“No, definitely not!” Tuuri laughed “We are very solemn.”
“Well, no wonder! Why do you have it in the middle of the winter? Who would want to parade when freezing their ass off?” Sigrun was rolling her eyes.
“It’s not like we just decide the date! It’s been sixth of December since Finland has existed.”
“Why is that?”
“I.. don’t know actually. But we know it’s been kept since the Old World. We honor Finland and our flag and mourn our fallen.”

“So, what do you do to celebrate?”
“We raise the flag up all our flagpoles and sing songs about Finland.”
“They do it very seriously too,” Mikkel supplemented “In all earnest, and no waving of any little flags!”
“In the afternoon there’s a parade in Keuruu.”
“A parade! You do have some fun too!”
“Mmm, not really. It’s a military parade, so the units whose turn it is that year just march around the compound into the central square, carrying flags. No smiling in the lineup! Then there is a speech, and a wreath is placed on the monument of the fallen. A guard is posted at the monument, holding a torch, through the night.”
“Boooriiing!”

“Well, we are Finns after all! In the evening there are some festivities. We have a better dinner and then the men wrestle and women shake hands.”
“What? Shake hands? Why?”
“It’s customary on Flag Day. There must be a lot of shaking hands!”
“I would rather wrestle!”
“Well, the wrestling is more of a play. One of the wrestlers is called The Unknown Warrior and then there are two sides who fight and then the one with the Unknown Warrior wins.”
“And what is the purpose of all this?”
“It’s… I don’t know. It’s how the Flag Day was kept in the Old World. I’m told. The wrestling play has to do with a big war, which was fought between groups of people! Imagine that, humans fighting humans! The hand shaking was originally done by King of Finland to… ensure a good year. I guess.”
“The King of Finland?” Mikkel commented. “I’m fairly certain Finland and Iceland never had kings.”
“Hmm, true. I knew that! But the hand shaking happened in a castle, and everybody was to wear their finest. It was a magnificent celebration!”

“And what of the candles?”
“Oh, everybody puts two candles in their window after dark. It’s to call protection on the house. So, I wanted to put candles on the cockpit window too. We need all the protection we can get.”
“I’ll see what I can do about the candles. When is it?”
“Tomorrow. Today is the fifth.”

Next morning, when Tuuri woke up, she noticed Sigrun and Emil had already vacated the tank with Mikkel, who always rose early to get the breakfast started. Lalli was asleep under Emil’s bunk. In a minute Sigrun was hammering the door and called to Tuuri. “Come out and take the twig with you! We have a surprise for you!”
Tuuri spent a moment persuading a reluctant Lalli to leave his den, but finally she managed to get her cousin to move. “The sooner you come, the sooner you can go back to sleep!”
When the Finns opened the door to the outside, they saw their teammates holding sheets of paper where they had drawn a cross in blue. “Mitä nyt taas??” Lalli wondered.
“Tänään on lippupäivä! He haluavat ilahduttaa meitä!”
”Vai niin. Tyhmä juhlapäivä.”
”Koita näyttää iloiselta, he tarkoittavat hyvää!”
”No joo joo. Kai täällä on aamiaistakin.”
”Happy Flag Day, Finns!” Sigrun declared. She stepped forward and shook Tuuri’s hand very vigorously. “Emil and Lalli will wrestle later!”

“Mitä häh?” Lalli didn’t understand any of it.
“Oh, thank you Sigrun, all! Very nice of you! I’m sure the wrestling will be unnecessary, I’m already happy to see your flags.”
“Wrestling is the only fun part of your day! Of course we will have it! But let’s eat first!” Sigrun shook Tuuri’s hand again and pulled her towards the breakfast.

Emil walked up to Lalli. “Hyv-ää lipu-pä-ivää Lalli!”
”Mrh!”
“I just heard Sigrun say we will wrestle later. Are you any good?”
“Täh?”
“Never mind. Have a flag ,” Lalli took the paper flag Emil offered for him, “and a cookie.” Now this was something Lalli understood.
“Kiitti.”
Mikkel handed Tuuri two fat and brand-new candles and said very seriously “I managed to locate some candles. I believe we can spare a couple, although I usually advocate sparing use of resources. So, here you are. Hopefully they will bring us protection.” "As they certainly won't fill our bellies" Mikkel continued, but only in his mind.



[hr]

Lalli and Tuuri's Finnish discussion goes thusly:

"What is it again?" Lalli wondered.
"It's the Flag Day today! They want to make us glad!"
"I see. Stupid holiday!"
"Try to look glad, they mean well."
"Ok ok, I suppose there's breakfast too."

Later, Lalli says "What? Oh?", Emil almost says "Happy Flag Day, Lalli" and later Lalli goes "Wha?"  and finally "Thanks."


Syttende mai, May Seventeenth is the Norwegian national day. It is a happy and colorful festival, and many people wear their bunads i.e. the "national dress" (folkloristic dresses modeled after historical styles). In Norway the national day is remarkably non-militaristic.

The Finnish Independence Day on the other hand is indeed a very solemn event. There are serious parades and carrying of flags, visits to monuments of war heroes and remembrance of the last war and the fallen.  The Finnish Defense Forces have a military parade. The candles in the windows tradition has been followed for various reasons for a long time, but has been a tradition on the Independence Day since 1927.
The hand shaking refers to the main event of all normal years, the Independence Day Reception hosted by the President of Finland in the Presidential Castle (which is called a castle but it’s a large fancy house, perhaps it could be called a palace but not really a castle).  This is televised, and watching it is very popular (over 2 million viewers at some point during the show is common). The reception starts with the guests entering and shaking hands with the President. As there are nowadays around 1800 guests, this takes a long time! It also offers the best possibility to see the dresses. This is the only such high society event in Finland and the most impressive dresses are the centre of attention. The media, especially the tabloids, publish long reports about the best dresses and most interesting guests. It doesn’t actually make much sense even now, so 90 years after an apocalypse it probably wouldn’t really be very clearly remembered 😊
The wrestling refers to another tradition. The movie Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier), based on a classic book of the same name, is shown every year on tv on the Independence Day. It’s a tale of ordinary Finnish soldiers in the Continuation War (part of World War II) and is one of the highest-valued books and films in the country. I imagine thinking about a war of humans against humans must feel quite bizarre in Y90.