Blog Post #3

The main religion in Finland is Evangelical Lutheran. More than 60% of Fins have
this worldview. The rest of the main religions in Finland are composed of Jehovah
Witnesses, Muslims, Pagans, Jewish, and Catholics. According to brittanica.com
Finland is one of the most homogenous European countries. Evangelical Lutheranism
has been Finland’s official religion since 1593. However, there has been a recent trend
in the last few decades with more Fins becoming less involved and more atheistic. The
majority of the Finnish people are still devout Evangelical Lutheran but it is projected
that they will become less and less religious as time goes on.
Religion has a great impact on the holidays and traditions that Finland takes part
in. A holiday that is important to Finnish culture is Epiphany or Loppiainen. This holiday
takes place to celebrate the end of Christmas time. Epiphany is celebrated by taking
Christmas trees and other Christmas decorations down and people eat regular non-
festive food. It is like a celebration of returning to regular everyday life. I think that this is
a very beautiful tradition because it is a celebration of what our everyday lives consist of
and is in some ways a way to practice gratitude. A fun tradition that many Fins
participate in on Epiphany is jumping in the frozen lakes.
Additionally, religion plays a role in the education that Fins receive. In public
school, students are required to learn about different world religions as well as main
religions in Finland. This allows for Fins to have a more well rounded education and
have the knowledge and skills to interact in a more respectful manner with people from
different religions and cultures. I found this to be interesting because in America religion
is typically an elective that you can choose to take but is usually not a required part of
education. Some controversy that I found in my research is that many Fins believe that
the teachers are not qualified to be teaching about certain religions. Since there is so
many Evangelical Lutherans in Finland there is a lack of diversity in the teachings that
students receive. They also receive religious education from a biased perspective which
can defeat the purpose of providing this mandatory religious education.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-19-8241-
5_24#:~:text=Finland%20has%20a%20rather%20unique,Finland%20it%20is%20regula
rly%20debated.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Finland/Resources-and-power
https://www.finnishpod101.com/blog/2019/12/21/epiphany/#:~:text=Feast%20of%2
0the%20Epiphany%20Date,5%2C%20is%20called%20Epiphany%20Eve.
https://europeanacademyofreligionandsociety.com/news/finnish-religious-
education-based-on-ones-own-religion/