Finnish Culture and Customs

A woman in a yellow summer dress and her curly brown dog on the wooden steps of a Finnish summer cottage in golden evening light, a table laid for dinner beside them

Finland runs on a set of customs that look baffling from the outside and entirely obvious from the inside. People leave babies to nap in the snow, take a numbered ticket to buy a loaf of bread, swear with the help of a three thousand year old thunder god and remove their shoes with something close to religious seriousness, and none of it strikes a Finn as the least bit unusual. This is the part of the blog that explains why.

Below is everything we have written about how Finns actually behave, from the surprising things they do differently to the quiet rules nobody mentions until the moment you break one. Start anywhere. It all eventually leads back to the sauna.

Two people pushing prams across the frozen sea in winter sunshine near Helsinki 20 Facts About Finland That Sound Made Up Freshly picked wild Finnish blueberries in a bucket on the forest floor 25 Surprising Things Finns Do Differently A lone cyclist crossing the frozen sea in front of snow covered Suomenlinna in Helsinki The 25 Quirkiest Traits of Finnish People People spaced well apart along a Helsinki tram stop in winter 15 Things You Should Never Say to a Finn Walkers on the frozen Helsinki sea as a Tallink ferry passes behind in winter Surviving 15 Finnish Culture Shocks A Finnish family walking their dog along a sunlit autumn forest path 13 Signs You Grew Up in Finland Memorial candles glowing on snowy cemetery steps on Christmas Eve in Finland Finnish Christmas Explained A mother pulling her child on a red sledge across the frozen Helsinki sea What Finland's Kindergartens Get Right A woman walking through central Tampere on a summer day with a tram passing behind 15 Enchanting Traits of Finnish Women A man tending a lakeside Midsummer bonfire among birch trees on a summer evening Juhannus: Finnish Midsummer Explained Dark thunderstorm clouds gathering over a Finnish forest lake at dusk Meet Ukko: The Finnish God of Thunder A Licence to Chill Finnish t-shirt by Very Finnish Problems 12 Common Myths About Finland Debunked A No niin Finnish t-shirt worn on a summer day 10 Funniest Finland Jokes That Only Finns Understand Illustration for 12 ways to make Finns think you are a weirdo 12 Ways to Make Finns Think You're a Weirdo The Finnish maternity baby box and its contents The Incredible History of the Finnish Baby Box A sunlit Finnish forest scene for 12 reasons Finland is the ultimate hippie haven 12 Reasons Finland Is the Ultimate Hippie Haven

Most of these habits end up on a shirt sooner or later. The Finnish T-Shirts collection is where the culture gets worn out loud, from sauna counting rhymes to the national talent for swearing.

Browse Finnish T-Shirts