Moomins

As I was thinking about topics I could write about in this blog, I got an idea of sharing with you a Finnish classic I just love myself: The Moomins. They are among the most popular fairytale characters here. The Moomins were created by a Finnish Swedish (a Finnish person who has Swedish as his/her native language, there are about 300,000 of them in Finland) author, Tove Jansson, in the 1930's. She drew numerous Moomin comics and wrote ten novels and a few other books about them. They became very popular, also internationally, and the rest is history.

What is the whole Moomin thing about at all, then? Moomins are trolls. The Moomin family lives in a peaceful valley where they also have a lot of friends. They live in peace and know how to enjoy life. The world of Moomins is very idyllic.

There isn't a single Finnish person who wouldn't know what Moomins are. They have become a crucial part of especially the children's culture, but other generations love them as well. The Japanise Moomin TV show is the first series I remember having watched. A couple of years ago I got really interested in the clever stories and beautiful language of the Moomin novels. The books were originally children's books but they are pretty philosophical and deal with deep issues so they are not particularly easy to read. They have become popular among adults. In addition to the books, comics ans TV series, there are also Moomin songs, movies, plays and children's books based on the TV show and written by someone else than Jansson. We even have a Moomin theme park!

In Finland, Moomins have become pop culture like Mickey Mouse. They are simply everywhere. There are Moomin toys, dishes which many people collect, clothes, computer and board games, stamps, soda and other food...

Moomins have and will hopefully always have a place in our hearts.

- Susanna from Finland

Pictures from weheartit.com, the first one is drawn by Tove Jansson and the other one is from the TV series.