On December 6, 1917, in the freezing northern city of Helsinki, the Finnish parliament voted 100 to 88 to break free from Russia and become its own country. For more than 600 years, Finland had been ruled by Sweden, and for another 108 years it had belonged to the Russian Empire. Now, with Russia in chaos after a revolution, the Finns finally saw their chance. They lit the candles in their windows, a quiet signal of hope, and declared themselves independent.
The road had not been easy. Finland is a land of frozen lakes, deep pine forests, and long, dark winters where the sun barely peeks above the horizon. Its 3 million people had kept their unique language and culture alive through centuries of foreign rule, telling old stories of heroes like Vainamoinen the wizard and writing them down in a book called the Kalevala. When the parliament voted, they were claiming all of that - the saunas, the reindeer herders, the singing villages - as their own at last.
Today, Finland is home to nearly 6 million people, the Northern Lights, Santa's official hometown in Lapland, and the famous mobile phone company Nokia. On December 6 every year, Finnish families light two candles in their windows just as their great-grandparents did, watch a black-and-white movie called The Unknown Soldier, and celebrate the cold winter night a small country chose its own future.
