Showing posts with label Finland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finland. Show all posts

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

The Longest Place Names In The World!

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Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch - North Wales

This town has become famous because of its long name. It has the longest train station name in the UK. The name translates as "St Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St Tysilio of the red cave". To have a go at trying to say the name, click here!


Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu - New Zealand

Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu is the Māori name for a hill, 305 metres (1,001 ft) high in New Zealand.It has gained a measure of fame as it is the longest place-name found in any English-speaking country.

The name on the sign that marks the hill is "Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu", which translates roughly as The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one. At 85 letters, it has been listed in the Guinness World Records as one of the longest place names in the world.

Other forms of the name are longer still: "Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea ure haea turi pukaka piki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua ki tana tahu" has 92 letters. An even longer version, Taumata-whakatangihanga-koauau-o-Tamatea-haumai-tawhiti-ure-haea-turi-pukaka-piki-maunga-horo-nuku-pokai-whenua-ki-tana-tahu, has 105 letters and means The hill of the flute playing by Tamatea — who was blown hither from afar, had a slit penis, grazed his knees climbing mountains, fell on the earth, and encircled the land — to his beloved.

To have a try at saying this name, click here!

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit - Thailand

This is the ceremonial name of Bangkok, Thailand, in Thai; it has the Guinness World record for longest place name in the world. The translation is:
krungthep mahanakhon
The land of angels, the great city of
amorn rattanakosin
immortality, various of devine gems,
mahintara yudthaya mahadilok pohp
the great angelic land unconquerable,
noparat rajathanee bureerom
land of nine noble gems, the royal city, the pleasant capital,
udomrajniwes mahasatarn
place of the grand royal palace,
amorn pimarn avaltarnsatit
forever land of angels and reincarnated spirits,
sakatattiya visanukram prasit
predestined and created by the highest devas

Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg - USA

This is the longest place name in the United States at 45 letters and is a lake in Webster, Massachusetts. It means "Fishing Place at the Boundaries — Neutral Meeting Grounds" and is sometimes facetiously translated as "you fish your side of the water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle". The lake is also known as Lake Webster.




Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill - Australia

The longest official geographical name in Australia is Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill. It has 26 letters and is a Pitjantjatjara word meaning "where the Devil urinates".

Muckanaghederdauhaulia - Ireland

In Ireland, the longest English placename at 22 letters is Muckanaghederdauhaulia (from the Irish language, Muiceanach Idir Dhá Sháile, meaning "pig-marsh between two saltwater inlets") in County Galway.

Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein - South Africa

Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein is the name of a farm in South Africa and is Afrikaans for "The spring (lit. Fountain) where two buffaloes were cleanly killed with a single shot", which follows a common format for place names in South Africa. It is uncertain as to whether Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein is the name of a farm, or a small town in South Africa, as various sources state either of these two as being correct.

Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsijänkä - Finland

Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsijänkä is a bog region in Savukoski, Lapland in Finland. The name is 35 letters long and is the longest place name in Finland.

Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik - Canada

This is a lake in Manitoba and Nunavut, in the Inuktitut language and at 31 letters is the longest official one-word placename in Canada.

Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta - India

Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta is a village in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is in the Telugu language and is the longest place name in India. It is also a railway station in Andhra Pradesh on the border with Tamil Nadu, India with the distinction of having the longest name among all stations on the Indian Railway system.

Gasselterboerveenschemond - Netherlands

Gasselterboerveenschemond is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Drenthe.It is the largest town name of The Netherlands that is written as one word. With 25 characters it is just one character larger than Gasselternijveenschemond, which lies a few kilometres from Gasselterboerveenschemond. To try to say the name, click here!





Parangaricutirimicuaro - Mexico

Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, in the Mexican state of Michoacán, is a small village near the Parícutin volcano. The city is called "Nuevo" (Spanish for "New") because the original San Juan Parangaricutiro was destroyed during the formation of the Parícutin volcano in 1943.San Juan Parangaricutiro is also famously known as Parangaricutirimícuaro, the longest place name word in Mexico. Some believe that “Parangaricutirimícuaro” is an urban legend and does not exist. It is the object of the folklore of many fictitious fables. The word itself is a tongue-twister and it is also used in longer tongue-twisters that include nonsense words similar to Parangaricutirimícuaro.To try to say the name click here!

Information from:

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Get to know Finnish music!

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Here are the top 5 Finnish songs in the music charts at the moment. To see the top 20, click here. We are by no means saying that this is all there is to Finnish Music, this is just what the Finnish public are loving at the moment!

Maija Vilkkumaa - Jos se vie mun miehen (this is not the song that is currently in the charts, but another one by the same artist)



Jenni Vartiainen - Seili



Chisu - Vapaa Ja Yksin



Paula Koivuniemi - Maria (this is not the song that is currently in the charts, but another one by the same artist)



J Karjalainen Polkabilly Rebels

Monday, 3 May 2010

The importance of press freedom

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The United Nations General Assembly declared 3 May to be World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.

Freedom of the press is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials. While such freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections.

With respect to governmental information, any government may distinguish which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information as sensitive, classified or secret and being otherwise protected from disclosure due to relevance of the information to protecting the national interest. Many governments are also subject to sunshine laws or freedom of information legislation that are used to define the ambit of national interest.

According to Reporters Without Borders, more than a third of the world's people live in countries where there is no press freedom. Overwhelmingly, these people live in countries where there is no system of democracy or where there are serious deficiencies in the democratic process. Freedom of the press is an extremely problematic problem/concept for most non-democratic systems of government since, in the modern age, strict control of access to information is critical to the existence of most non-democratic governments and their associated control systems and security apparatus.

World opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service in 2007. Of those interviewed, 56% thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society but 40% said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully. The strongest endorsement came from North America and Western Europe, where up to 70% put freedom first, followed by Venezuela, Kenya and South Africa, with over 60%. In India, Singapore and Russia, by contrast, more people favoured stability over press freedom.

Freedom of the Press is a yearly report by US-based non-governmental organization Freedom House, measuring the level of freedom and editorial independence enjoyed by the press in every nation and significant disputed territories around the world. Levels of freedom are scored on a scale from 1 (most free) to 100 (least free). Depending on the basics, the nations are then classified as "Free", "Partly Free", or "Not Free". If you would like to see the results of this report - which differs slightly from the Reporters Without Borders freedom of the press index - then click on the third link at the bottom of this post.

Every year, Reporters Without Borders establishes a ranking of countries in terms of their freedom of the press. Below is the ranking for 2009:

1 Denmark 0.00
1 Finland 0.00
1 Ireland 0.00
1 Norway 0.00
1 Sweden 0.00
6 Estonia 0.50
7 Netherlands 1.00
7 Switzerland 1.00
9 Iceland 2.00
10 Lithuania 2.25
11 Belgium 2.50
11 Malta 2.50
13 Austria 3.00
13 Latvia 3.00
13 New Zealand 3.00
16 Australia 3.13
17 Japan 3.25
18 Germany 3.50
19 Canada 3.70
20 Luxembourg 4.00
20 United Kingdom 4.00
20 United States 4.00
23 Jamaica 4.75
24 Czech Republic 5.00
25 Cyprusa 5.50
25 Hungary 5.50
27 Ghana 6.00
28 Trinidad and Tobago 7.00
29 Uruguay 7.63
30 Costa Rica 8.00
30 Mali 8.00
30 Portugal 8.00
33 South Africa 8.50
34 Macedonia 8.75
35 Greece 9.00
35 Namibia 9.00
37 Poland 9.50
37 Slovenia 9.50
39 Bosnia and Herzegovina 10.50
39 Chile 10.50
39 Guyana 10.50 42 Suriname 10.60
43 France 10.67
44 Cape Verde 11.00
44 Slovakia 11.00
44 Spain 11.00
47 Argentina 11.33
48 Hong Kong 11.75
Grenada 12.00
49 Italy 12.14
50 Romania 12.50
51 Northern Cyprusb 14.00
51 Maldives 14.00
51 Mauritius 14.00
54 Paraguay 14.33
55 Panama 14.50
56 Papua New Guinea 14.70
57 Burkina Faso 15.00
57 Haiti 15.00
59 Republic of China (Taiwan) 15.08
60 Kuwait 15.25
61 Lebanon 15.42
62 Botswana 15.50
63 Liberia 15.50
63 Malawi 15.50
63 Serbiac 15.50
63 Tanzania 15.50
63 Togo 15.50
68 Bulgaria 15.61
69 South Korea 15.67
70 Bhutan 15.75
71 Brazil 15.88
72 Benin 16.00
72 Seychelles 16.00
72 Timor-Leste 16.00
75 Kosovod 16.58
76 Nicaragua 16.75
77 Montenegroc 17.00
78 Croatia 17.17
79 El Salvador 17.25
80 Central African Republic 17.75
Tonga 18.00
81 Georgia 18.83
82 Comoros 19.00
82 Mozambique 19.00
84 Ecuador 20.00
85 Peru 20.88
86 Uganda 21.50
86 United Arab Emirates 21.50
88 Albania 21.75
89 Senegal 22.00
89 Ukraine 22.00
91 Mongolia 23.33
92 Guinea-Bissau 23.50
93 Israel (Israeli territory) 23.75
94 Qatar 24.00
95 Bolivia 24.17
96 Kenya 25.00
97 Zambia 26.75
98 Dominican Republic 26.83
99 Lesotho 27.50
100 Guinea 28.50
100 Indonesia 28.50
100 Mauritania 28.50
103 Burundi 29.00
103 Côte d'Ivoire 29.00
105 India 29.33
106 Guatemala 29.50
106 Oman 29.50
108 United States (extra-territorial) 30.00
109 Cameroon 30.50
110 Djibouti 31.00
111 Armenia 31.13
112 Jordan 31.88
113 Tajikistan 32.00
114 Moldova 33.75
115 Sierra Leone 34.00
116 Republic of the Congo 34.75
117 Cambodia 35.17
118 Nepal 35.63
119 Angola 36.50
119 Bahrain 36.50
121 Bangladesh 37.33
122 Philippines 38.25
122 Turkey 38.25
124 Venezuela 39.50
125 Kyrgyzstan 40.00
126 Colombia 40.13
127 Morocco 41.00
128 Honduras 42.00
129 Gabon 43.50
130 Thailand 44.00
131 Malaysia 44.25
132 Chad 44.50
133 Singapore 45.00
134 Madagascar 45.83
135 Nigeria 46.00
136 Zimbabwe 46.50
137 Gambia 48.25
137 Mexico 48.25
139 Niger 48.50
140 Ethiopia 49.00
141 Algeria 49.56
142 Kazakhstan 49.67
143 Egypt 51.38
144 Swaziland 52.50
145 Iraq 53.30
146 Azerbaijan 53.50
146 Democratic Republic of the Congo 53.50
148 Sudan 54.00
149 Afghanistan 54.25
150 Israel (extra-territorial) 55.50
151 Belarus 59.50
152 Fiji 60.00
153 Russia 60.88
154 Tunisia 61.50
155 Brunei 63.50
156 Libya 64.50
157 Rwanda 64.67
158 Equatorial Guinea 65.50
159 Pakistan 65.67
160 Uzbekistan 67.67
161 Palestinian Authority 69.83
162 Sri Lanka 75.00
163 Saudi Arabia 76.50
164 Somalia 77.50
165 Syria 78.00
166 Vietnam 81.67
167 Yemen 83.38
168 People's Republic of China 84.50
169 Laos 92.00
170 Cuba 94.00
171 Myanmar 102.67
172 Iran 104.14
173 Turkmenistan 107.00
174 North Korea 112.5
175 Eritrea 115.50


Information from:

Friday, 30 April 2010

Walpurgisnacht (Witches' Night)

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Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht) is a traditional religious holiday of pre-Christian origin, celebrated today by Christian as well as non-Christian communities, on April 30 or May 1 in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. Early Christianity had a policy of 'Christianising' pagan festivals so it is perhaps no accident that St. Walpurga's day was set to May 1. Historically Walpurgisnacht is derived from various pagan spring customs. Bonfires were built to keep away the dead and chaotic spirits that were then widely believed to walk among the living. This is followed by the return of light and the sun as celebrated during May Day, although bonfires and witches are more closely associated with Easter (especially in Ostrobothnia, Finland) and bonfires alone with midsummer in the rest of Finland.

In Estonia, Volbriöö is celebrated throughout the night of April 30 and into the early hours of May 1, where May 1 is a public holiday called "Spring Day" (Kevadpüha). Volbriöö is an important and widespread celebration of the arrival of Spring in the country. Influenced by German culture, the night originally stood for the gathering and meeting of witches. Modern people still dress up as witches to wander the streets in a carnival-like mood.

In Finland, Walpurgis day (Vappu) is, along with New Year's Eve and Juhannus, the biggest carnival-style festival held in the streets of Finland's towns and cities. The celebration, which begins on the evening of April 30 and continues to May 1, typically centres on copious consumption of sparkling wine and other alcoholic beverages. Student traditions, particularly those of the engineering students, are one of the main characteristics of "Vappu". Since the end of the 19th century, this traditional upper-class feast has been appropriated by university students. Many graduates from lukio, and thus traditionally assumed as university students or alumni, wear a cap. The cap of the engineering students is distinguished by a pom-pom hanging from it. One tradition is to drink sima, a home-made mead, along with freshly cooked doughnuts.

In Germany, Walpurgisnacht, the night from April 30 to May 1, is the night when witches are reputed to hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of Spring.In some parts of northern coastal regions of Germany, the custom of lighting huge fires is still kept alive to celebrate the coming of May, while most parts of Germany have a derived Christianized custom around Easter called "Easter fires". In rural parts of southern Germany it is part of popular youth culture to play pranks such as tampering with neighbours' gardens, hiding possessions, or spraying graffiti on private property. These pranks occasionally result in serious damage to property or bodily injury. One of the best places to celebrate Walpurgisnacht is the town of Thale, where not-so-pagan hordes of 35,000 or more arrive for colourful variety events and the Walpurgishalle museum tells you all you need to know about sacrifices, rituals and local myths. People dress as witches and toss away all reserve as they dance around fires.

In Sweden, Walpurgis Night (Swedish: Valborgsmässoafton or simply Valborg) has become a public holiday. The forms of celebration in Sweden vary in different parts of the country and between different cities. Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough writes that "The first of May is a great popular festival in the more midland and southern parts of Sweden. On the eve of the festival, huge bonfires, which should be lighted by striking two flints together, blaze on all the hills and knolls". One of the main traditions in Sweden is to light large bonfires, a custom which is most firmly established in Svealand, and which may have begun in Uppland during the 18th century: "At Walpurgis (Valborg), farm animals were let out to graze, and ever since the early 18th century bonfires (majbrasor, kasar) have been lit to scare away predators". In Southern Sweden, an older tradition, no longer practised, was for the younger people to collect greenery and branches from the woods at twilight: these were used to adorn the houses of the village. The expected reward for this task was to be paid in eggs. Singing traditional songs of Spring is widespread throughout the country. In Uppsala students also go rafting in Fyrisån on home-made and often humorously decorated rafts. Several nations also hold "Champagne Races" where students go to drink and spray champagne or sparkling wine on each other. The largest celebration is in Stockholm’s Skansen open-air museum, where a festive concert runs from mid-afternoon to around midnight. In Gothenburg, students from the Chalmers University have for the last century conducted the Cortège parade, with floats showing mock scenes from major events over the past year. More than 200,000 people line the streets to view the parade.

April 30 is "pálení čarodějnic" ("burning of the witches") or "čarodějnice" in the Czech Republic, the day that winter is ceremonially brought to an end, by the burning of rag and straw witches or just broomsticks on bonfires around the country. The festival offers Czechs the chance to eat, drink and be merry around a roaring fire.




Information from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night
http://journals.worldnomads.com/worldfestivals/post/29465.aspx

Today's celebrations April 30th!

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Today is...

Children's Day in Mexico
King's Birthday in Sweden
Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) in the Netherlands
Liberation Day in Vietnam
Mangé les Morts in Haiti
May Day Eve in Finland
Queen Beatrix's Birthday in Curacao
Queen's Birthday in St. Martin
Queen's Day in Aruba, Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius
Rincon's Day in Bonaire
Walpurgis Night in Sweden
Walpurgisnacht (Witches Night) in Germany
Beltane (Northern Hemisphere) in Paganism
Samhain (Southern Hemisphere) in Paganism

Friday, 9 April 2010

Today's Celebrations April 9th!

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Today is...

Araw Ng Kagitingan (Valour Day) in the Philippines
Martyr's Day in Tunisia
Memorial Day in Georgia
Mikael Agricola Day / Finnish Language Day in Finland
Independence Day (from Soviet Union) in Georgia

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Today's Celebrations March 16th!

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Today is...

Black Press Day in the United States of America
Freedom of Information Day in the United States of America
Liberty Day in the United States of America
Loco Davi (manger du bois rituel) in Haiti
St. Urho's Day in Finland

Monday, 15 February 2010

Today's Celebrations February 14!

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Today is:

Wine-Growers Day in Bulgaria
Valentines Day in the UK, USA, Australia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland
Photobucket