Helsinki, Finland. 25th July, 2014. Member of Finland’s Unscientific Society prepares the Cold Stone for throwing into the Cholera Pool of Helsinki’s South Harbour. According to an old Finnish tradition, Jaakko throws a cold stone into a lake on Jaakko’s naming day, 25 July. This purportedly cools waters, marking the end of summer. Original day marking the cooling of waters is actually still a few weeks off. This is due to the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the middle of the eighteenth century. Credit: Aija Lehtonen/Alamy Live News
Helsinki, Finland. 25th July, 2014. Member of Finland’s Unscientific Society prepares the Cold Stone for throwing into the Cholera Pool of Helsinki’s South Harbour. According to an old Finnish tradition, Jaakko throws a cold stone into a lake on Jaakko’s naming day, 25 July. This purportedly cools waters, marking the end of summer. Original day marking the cooling of waters is actually still a few weeks off. This is due to the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the middle of the eighteenth century. That involved the elimination of eleven days in the year, and name days were moved. Up until that point, Jaakko’s name day had been on 5 August, around the time Finland’s lakes, rivers and coastal waters do tend to begin to cool. Credit: Aija Lehtonen/Alamy Live News
Size: 3695px × 5585px
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Photo credit: © Aija Lehtonen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: belief, cholera, cold, finland, finnish, fun, helsinki, heritage, jaakko, july, performance, popular, prepare, society, stone, throwing, tourism, tradition, traditional, unscientific