Finland

Helsinki Christmas Market 2026 closes on 22 December, two days before Christmas, and that tells you more about Finns than any guidebook. The market is called Tuomaan markkinat, St Thomas’s Market, and St Thomas’s Day is the day by which Christmas preparations must be finished in the Finnish tradition. After that, everyone goes home, to […]

Finns do not do Halloween. They do pyhäinpäivä, All Saints’ Day, and in 2026 the two land on the same Saturday, 31 October. So on the same evening that Helsinki’s clubs are full of costumes, thousands of families are lighting candles at Hietaniemi cemetery and the shops are on Sunday hours. If you want to