Culture | The flags fly in honor of the Kalevala and Finnish culture on Tuesday

Tuesday let’s celebrate Kalevala and Finnish culture day. It’s the official flag day, and the flags fly in secret from eight in the morning until sunset.

The author of Kalevala, or Finland’s national epic, was Elias lönnrot, who in the 19th century collected folk poems from Eastern Finland and Viena Karelia, among others. The Kalevala was completed in 1835, and Lönnrot wrote the preface to it just on February 28.

As the material accumulated, Lönnrot began working on a new, more extensive Kalevala, which appeared in 1849.

The Kalevala day has been marked on the Finnish calendar since 1950, and two years later, in the University of Helsinki’s almanac, the day was among the general flag days. The Kalevala Day was officially flagged in 1978.