Straw is an age-old material related to the celebration of Christmas: it has been spread on the floor of a house at Christmas time and used to make various ornaments for the festive season. When the celebration of Christmas became established in the annual cycle in the place of the ancient harvest festival, the symbolism of straw was seen as a reminder of that celebration. In Christian Christmas imagery, straw has been considered a reference to the birth of the Saviour and the straw in the manger. Part of the holiness of Christmas was also believed to be transferred to the Christmas straw, which was traditionally saved until springtime. The straw was then placed at the bottom of the sowing basket to ensure a good harvest.

Straw as a material for Christmas ornaments

In an agricultural society, straw was always available in abundance after threshing. Rye and wheat straw in particular was ideal for making decorations. The mechanisation of agriculture, however, has reduced the availability of straw as efficient combine harvesters shred the straw. Still, straw ornaments inspired by traditional designs have remained popular among Christmas decorations. Nowadays, however, the majority of them on shop shelves are imported goods.

Reviving a tradition

The 1930s marked a turning point in the history of traditional straw ornaments. By that time, the custom of having Christmas straw on the floor of a house had been abandoned because of the risk of fire. Straw ornaments, including the straw mobile (himmeli), were also becoming a thing of the past. The Martta Organisation and home industry organisations came to realise that the tradition was about to disappear and started campaigning for straw ornaments. The period was characterised by an appreciation of peasant culture and positive images of the past. The nostalgia of straw ornaments perfectly reflected this. The Kotiliesi magazine wrote the following in 1938: “Christmas straw is such a precious Christmas legacy for Finns that people certainly want it displayed. Small sheaves for birds, little Santa Clauses, anything made of straw, sell like hot cakes on the Christmas market.”

Meanwhile, the commercial imported decorations that had begun to appear on the market were frowned upon. The Emäntälehti magazine wrote the following already in 1924: “We must make more effort to keep our Christmas trees and tables free of foreign trinkets and use more products of our own inventiveness and hard-working fingers. This is easier to do in the countryside and country towns, where the temptations of the big shops with their novelties are not as great as here in the capital.”

Celestial bodies

It may be that the atmosphere of the period inspired the straw ornament tradition to be preserved even more widely as, in 1936, Ilmari Mannermaa from Kestilä in Northern Ostrobothnia sent the ornaments in the photo to Sanakirjasäätiö (‘the Dictionary Foundation’, now the Institute for the Languages of Finland/Kotus), from where they were donated to the collections of the National Museum of Finland. More specific details about the ornaments were recently found in the Kotus archives.

The straw ornaments were made by Aappo Junkkari, who was born in 1862 and thus remembered the ornaments from his own childhood. The ornaments are named after celestial bodies, with the two largest ones being the suns, one slightly smaller being the moon and the smallest ones being stars. The set also includes two Christmas suttis. These types of decorations were still common in the area in the second half of the 19th century but had since completely gone out of use and were falling into oblivion. According to Aapo Junkkari, the ornaments were placed behind the table in the main room, on the back wall and so high up that children could not reach them from a bench. If individual suns were used, they could also be placed on top of windows and doors. The ornaments could remain on the wall until the spring cleaning, which “was usually performed by Lady Day, and sometimes not until Easter, or at Whitsun by the tardiest”. Later, it became more common to remove the straw ornaments as early as at Epiphany.

By the 1930s, the original meaning of the straw ornaments had already been forgotten. Elderly people in Kestilä thought that they symbolised the birth of the Saviour and the Star of Bethlehem.

The Christmas suttis

Other common straw ornaments in the Kestilä area were the Christmas suttis. The traditions associated with them were described by the ornament-maker Aappo Junkkari’s father Jaakko, born in 1834, who was considered to have a particularly good memory: “The Christmas suttis were made of straw from the floor by taking long pieces, tying one end tightly with string, cutting them flat and inserting a sharp wooden stick. The suttis were also cut at one end so that the finished items were about 50 centimetres long. Each person threw the suttis in turn and tried to get them to stick to the ceiling of the house, either to the beams or the gaps between them, where they were left to hang. The competition was fierce as everyone tried to get their sutti to stick as firmly as possible, as it was believed that whoever’s sutti fell first from the ceiling would be the first to die. If the suttis stayed on the ceiling, they were left in place until Shrovetide, when they were burned.”

Raila Kataja

The diameter of the moon is 35,5 cm. Photo: Ilari Järvinen, Finnish Heritage Agency.

Mannermaa donated the ornaments to Sanakirjasäätiö, from where they were donated to the National Museum of Finland. Mannermaa criticised the ornaments he had sent: “These did not turn out well enough as the maker is poor-sighted, and the pieces of straw were not pretty”. The largest of the ornaments, the sun, opened up only when fastened on the wall. Photo: Ilari Järvinen, Finnish Heritage Agency.

The smallest of these ornaments are the stars, their diameter is only 10 cm. Photo: Ilari Järvinen, Finnish Heritage Agency.

Joulusutti is nearly 40 cm long. The aim was to get it to stick to the ceiling. Photo: Ilari Järvinen, Finnish Heritage Agency.

Sources:

Heininen Päivi, Kotilieden suuri joulukirja. Yhtyneet kuvalehdet, 2002.

Koivisto Kaisa, Hannele Nyman, Marjo-Riitta Saloniemi: Joulupuu on rakennettu - Suomalaisen joulukuusen tarina. Tammi, 2009.

National Archives, digitised small prints:

Emäntälehti: Martta-yhdistyksen äänenkannattaja 1.2.1924 nro 2 https://digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi/aikakausi/binding/895836?page=7 (accessed 29 October 2024)

Kotiliesi 15.11.1938 No22 https://digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi/aikakausi/binding/914282?page=17 (accessed 29 October 2024)