Laskiainen

Laskiainen is a celebration with Finnish origins, which is associated with Shrove Tuesday and is often described as a "mid-winter sliding festival".

One of the places the festival is celebrated in is the community of Palo, Minnesota (between Aurora and Makinen, on the shores of Loon Lake). Palo is the home of one of the longest continuously held Finnish–American festivals in the United States.[1]

Many smaller groups and Finnish–American clubs have various Laskiainen celebrations, but the large one which developed and became more organized in Palo in the 1930s[2] is notable for both size and longevity.

In North America, it is traditional to have a split-pea soup with ham meal, and slide down either snow-covered or iced tracks, often on toboggans.

References

  1. ↑ Laskiainen, Finnish American Cultural Activities.
  2. ↑ All around the year: holidays and celebrations in American life By Jack Santino (starting on page 87)
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.