Some Interesting Facts About Finland

Public Holidays

Date 2005 Occasion
January 1 New Year's Day  
January 6 Epiphany
March 25 Good Friday
March 27 Easter
March 28 Easter Monday
May 1 May Day or Vappu1
May 5 Ascension
June 24 Midsummer's Eve or Juhannusaatto2
June 25 Midsummer's Day or Juhannuspaiva
November 1 All Saints Day
December 6 Independence Day
December 24 Christmas Eve2
December 25 Christmas Day  
December 26 2nd Day of Christmas

Post & Communications

Stamps are available at post offices, stationary and book stores, stations and hotels. Letters and postcards within Europe sent by airmail usually take about 3 days.

If you need to call a country besides the USA or UK, then you have to go to a telegraph office marked "tele" or "lennatin", near post offices. You go into a booth, complete your call, and hand over your payment in cash to the booth attendant.

For local phone calls, public booths are the only affordable option. So keep enough change with you, or buy a phone card – the Sonera Kortti – from a post office or a grocery store.

Tipping

Hotels, Restaurants and Bars include about 15- 14% service charge in their bills. Bellhops get some change too for every suitcase lugged up to your room, cabbies and washroom attendents get nothing more than your spare change. Tipping hairdressers is also the done thing.