The 'Finnish your dinner' project invites everyone to share a meal in celebration of Finland and Finnish food. Finns commonly share a warm meal at school and work every day, this shared experience is the focus of the event.
The event started as a way to celebrate 'Helsinki Day' each June by laying out a long table across the main street of Helsinki. Soon other Finnish cities followed suit and the event became national - and this year it is being celebrated on the weekend of the 25th and 27th August to celebrate 100 years of Finnish independence.
One of the main organisers, Ms Tanja Jänicke from Yhteismaa ry (a not-for-profit movement specialising in creating social movements) says that sharing a meal outside together, with thousands of participants has been enormously popular.
“We set the table with white table cloths and invited everyone to bring their picnic and friends and share a meal with strangers seated at the same table,” Ms Jänicke tells SBS Finnish.
“We weren’t sure how popular the event would be. To our surprise the free tickets sold out in 2 minutes.”
The first dinner was organised for 1000 participants five years ago.
“We weren’t sure how popular the event would be," Ms Jänicke says. "To our surprise the free tickets sold out in 2 minutes.”
The concept was then expanded to include dinners in any public spaces, parks and sidewalks in Helsinki.
Going global
This year the Finnish Foreign Ministry asked event organisers to join them in making the event global to mark the special occasion of the centenary.
With the help of the Finnish Your Dinner website, hosts have been registering their dinners in locations around the world.
Ms Jänicke says that hundreds of dinners have been registered in far flung places including Hawaii, Tanzania and of course Australia.
“Dinner menus of migrants and expats reflect more traditional Finnish cuisine but events organised in Finland include more exotic meals,” Ms Jänicke says.
An event map for 'Finnish your Dinner' shows participants registered around the country in Australia Source: Google Maps/Finnish your Dinner
“Rye bread, which was voted as Finland’s national food, is something that Finns outside Finland long for.”
Ms Jänicke hopes that the event will encourage people to share meals more often.
“A recent survey commissioned by Yhteismaa ry showed, that while meals are shared during school and work hours, many Finns eat their dinners alone,” she says.
The organisation hopes that the public events will encourage people to be less formal and to share everyday meals with each other.
Join 'Finnish Your Dinner' this weekend
Ms Jänicke says it’s not too late to get involved join the dinner.
“You can set up a dinner with short notice and as mentioned earlier, it doesn’t have to be perfect.”
Ms Jänicke encourages participants to register their event on the event website or to just head out and add photos on the event Facebook page later.
"Get together with your friends and neighbours and go out to a park for a picnic. It saves from tidying up at home afterwards,” she concludes.
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