[967] in Humor
HUMOR: Finnish Wife-Carrying
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Fri Jul 14 15:08:55 1995
To: efhilton@MIT.EDU
Cc: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 14:44:19 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 95 7:31:05 PDT
SONKAJARVI, Finland (Reuter) - It is not a sport you expect
to flourish in progressive Scandinavia. But thousands flocked
again this year to the Finnish national wife-carrying
championships, held as usual a few hours' drive from the Arctic
Circle.
The challenge: lift up a woman -- preferably someone else's
wife -- aged 17 or over. Run with her over a gruelling 780-feet
obstacle course, through a waist-high pool and over two fences,
on sand, asphalt and grass.
If you drop her you incur a 15-second penalty. Anyone of any
nationality can enter, though in practice only men do. The prize
for the fastest man is the woman's weight in lemonade.
For the village, this contest is simply a highpoint of the
annual summer fete, rooted in local legend. But the event
suggests that with Finland now in the European Union, Britain
may be about to lose its monopoly on European eccentricity.
``We Finns can be mad without alcohol, too, you know,'' said
local journalist Veiko Huttunen. The organizers admit they would
prefer to give the prize in beer, but are prohibited by
Finland's strict anti-alcohol laws.
The race itself is only four years old, though the idea
dates back two centuries, to the legend of Ronkainen the Robber.
The saying goes that he used to test new gang members by making
them carry a heavy woman over a similar course.
It was then quite common to steal wives from each other's
tribes -- so it was important to be sure your men were strong
enough, insists Anitta Blom of the regional tourist board.
``This is very, very Finnish,'' said Swedish journalist
Christina Nord, 132 pounds and sent from Stockholm with a brief
to get herself carried in the race. ``They wouldn't do this in
Sweden.''
The crowd of 3,000 gathered under a moody sky for this
year's championship represented about half the total population
of the village of Sonkajarvi, though many came from other parts
of central Finland to watch.
Fortunately, the sun shone on the race itself, as 12 men of
varying height, weight, age and athletic ability hoisted women
weighing between 88 lb and 143 lb onto their backs or over their
shoulders and lumbered, red-faced and panting, over the course.
This year's winner, 34-year old builder Ilpo Ronkko, ran a
determined and concentrated race with his tiny wife Anneli, in
one minute 11.4 seconds. He was still frowning as he collected
his prize of 44 one-liter bottles of fizzy drink.
``It was very hard,'' he told journalists afterward. ``But I
was confident. I felt we were going well even though I didn't do
any training. Anneli is keen to do it again next year.''
Note his last remark. With only 12 men daring to enter this
year, the others may have been held back by the weather, the
value of the prize or even the weight of their wives -- but they
were certainly not deterred by political correctness.
``It's just a joke you know,'' said Blom. ``You must have a
sense of humor in life. These feminists should have a sense of
humor, too. Finnish women are strong -- they're happy someone is
carrying them.''
Indeed, one of the women contestants thrashed her carrier
mercilessly with birch twigs, alas to no avail -- he dropped her
in the pool. Instead, she tried to carry him.
``In many ways men in Finland have a harder time than
women,'' said village mayor, Paavo Tyrvainen, himself
disqualified from this year's race by a bad back. ``Women here
are so independent.''
For him, the event is a welcome example of vitality and
resilient fun in a tough environment -- Finland only recently
emerged from a grueling recession, and unemployment in rural
Sonkajarvi is nearly 20 percent.
EU membership -- opposed by 70 percent of voters in the area
in last year's referendum -- is about to make deep cuts in
farming subsidies, so the whole region faces more battles on top
of an already harsh winter climate.
Events like this may also help stimulate tourism in
Finland's unspoilt lakes and forests, Tyrvainen said. For years
they have seemed more remote than they are, under the twin
shadows of a cold winter climate and the Cold War.
In fact, summers here are warm as well as very sunny.
Nonetheless for some contestants, the race is a deeply
serious display of athleticism. Take Alto Vornanen, the
competitor who bravely shouldered your 110 lb correspondent, to
come a respectable fifth.
``You weren't heavy,'' he told Reuters. ``I'm out of
condition. I've run 47 marathons, but only two this year.''
