Yleinen-en

Forest Spirits and How to Call Them

There’s something you should know about us Finns: we never quite stopped believing in magic. Oh, we’ll talk about technology and modern life like anyone else, but scratch the surface and you’ll find we still leave porridge for the house spirits at Christmas, still feel a shiver when walking past certain stones in the forest, and still – perhaps unconsciously – drum in rhythms our great-grandmothers would recognise. You see, when over 70% of your country remains forested and your ancestors spent thousands of years in intimate conversation with the spirits dwelling within those woods, that kind of connection doesn’t simply disappear because someone invented the mobile phone.

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