Looong Friday

Well, today is Good Friday, here in Finland called “Long Friday” or should it be “Looong Friday”?

According to the old tradition you were not allowed to enjoy yourself and certainly not to smile with your teeth showing today. And all this to join Jesus in his pains when he some 2000 years ago, well guess he dies in his thirties, so sometime 1970 years ago really, carried the cross on Via Dolorosa and got crucified.

Anyway, still today this is one of the days the whole country really shuts down and is quiet. You are not supposed to be visiting or have parties, and the neighbours that are either not Christian or too young to care consider or respect anything had a party that went on to the early hours. So it really was a long Friday, it felt like it would never come to an end.

The music went on for hours until the early morning, and so did the shouting on the balcony.

Even having a party on Easter Thursday, which here is called “Busy Thursday” would have been easier to accept, anyway, the noise way not bothering really until their balcony door was opened for going smoking outdoors smoking, and having had a couple of drinks you tend to talk a bit louder than really needed.

One more summit, and this time a major summit took place today about what to do about global warming, and according to the information I have it was a long one, so maybe the name “Long Friday” would be appropriate.

So we had just fish to celebrate the end of lent and fasting, which we did not really do, but to even more enjoy the Easter food tomorrow. Prawn-cocktail as starters, poached salmon with asparagus and sauce Hollandaise and a mousse au chocolat noir as dessert. And this really is according to all the rules of Lent, even the most puritan Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox could have eaten this on Good Friday.