Holidays in Finland - Finnish Language Day (Mikael Agricola Day)

Every year Finns and Finnish language lovers celebrate Finnish Language Day on the 9th of April If you hear that Mikael Agricola Day is also celebrated in Finland on this day, then you should not correct your opponent These two holidays are identical, the only difference is in the years of their occurrence So, in 1960, a holiday was established in the country in honor of Agricola 18 years later, namely in 1978, the holiday began to bear the name Finnish Language Day The exact date of birth of the reformer is unknown to historians, so this Day was celebrated not on his birthday, but on the day of his death Mikael died in 1557 while moving from Moscow, from where he was traveling with the Swedish delegation after negotiations in connection with the establishment of peace between Russia and Sweden Michael Agricola was a bishop, educator and reformer who lived in the 16th century He was awarded such attention due to his enormous merit: in 1543, thanks to him, the first Finnish ABC saw the light of day The basis of this book was the Karelian dialect Residents of Finland rightfully consider this year to be the year of birth of Finnish writing The reformer did not stop there and published a prayer book a few years later Then he translated the New Testament into his native language In other words, the educator devoted most of his life to translating texts that were relevant at that time into Finnish in order to develop literacy and writing among the population The Finnish Alphabet contained not only the alphabet and numbers, it also included the main fragments of the Catechism Thus, the book contained the basics of what Christian priests taught at that time It is not without reason that in one of his books Agricola points out that his main merit is only the transfer of his native language to paper And the language itself existed long before that Traditionally, every April 9, the national flag is raised throughout the country, however, this day is not a day off The holiday in honor of the father of written Finnish is celebrated in educational institutions with competitions, as well as seminars and lectures Despite the fact that the Finnish ABC in its original form has not reached the present day, even in fragments, libraries on this day organize public readings of these books, as well as present new ones Paying tribute to memory, descendants bring flowers to the place of death and monuments of Agricola In 2007, collectible silver coins were issued in denominations of 10 euros