pyhäinpäivä

halloween isn't a big deal in Finland. actually, (in Savitaipale, anyway) it is hardly a deal at all. trickortreating doesn't seem to happen at all.

but they do observe Pyhäinpäivä, which I gather is All Saints Day. it is a quiet holiday of memorial for the dead. I went with my host family to each of Savitaipale's three cemeteries place candles on the graves of relatives. I can't really explain the silent, foggy beauty of a cemetery of black stones in the middle of the woods, flickering with constellations of candles. nearly every stone had multiple candles on it. and all real candles. none of the blinking colored electric monstrosities I've grown resigned to back in the old country.

I didn't take any pictures during the day, but after visiting the grandmother and seeing the graveyard (the one by the church nearest the center of town) in the dark as we were walking back, I realized it was a photographic subject not to be passed up. about an hour later, I returned with a friend Kaisa, a spirited girl who refuses to speak English (not that I have ever asked her to, mind you!), speaks Finnish at 300 km/h (roughly 186mph for those of you still in America), and doesn't mind spontaneous long walks late into cold, rainy nights (the history of our friendship consists mainly of spontaneous long walks late into cold, rainy nights).

after meandering the graveyard for almost an hour, we visited the näkötorni (view tower), a wooden ~15m high tower atop the hill. from there one gets a splendid view of the lake (Kuolimo) and the Savitaipale village. 

glowing graveyard (from halfway up the hill)

the village lights, reflected in the Kuolimo (from the tower)

village lights refracted by fog and editless photoediting (from the tower).