Upon attending the first introductory seminars organized by the University's International Desk, a concept previously foreign to me began to dominate the presentation when Swedish cultural customs were introduced in an almost sacred manner. It is called "Fika" and it is a wholesome authentic Swedish cultural institution, apparently designed in the 1970's with the combined effort of the Volvo, Ikea, and Absolut Vodka marketing departments to function as a mode of engagement for people living in Sweden. The brilliance of it is its ridiculous simplicity: an interchangeable form of meeting people for coffee, food, a romantic date, or just a conversation in any public setting. As the reality of it dawned on me during my first week here, I was puzzled and aggravated by the idea that this deserved its own PowerPoint slides. Furthermore, it was presented as a suggestion to us foreigners as a way to get to know new people in a new environment. I should probably be grateful, because without the paternal oversight of the mighty Swedish kingdom, it would have never in a hundred years occurred to me that I should go out and meet people for drinks in order to get to know them. But it doesn't cover mere drinks! It encompasses all kinds of meetups, which actually do exist in other European and world cultures too. I'll give you a hypothetical example of how a typical conversation about the basics of Fika would go with a full blooded Swedish person:
Me: "So what exactly is Fika?"
A New Swedish Aquaintance: "Fika is our word for a coffee date or a get together where we just talk and have a good time together."
M: "So its is just a coffee date? Nothing unique or more to it?"
ANSA: "No no! Fika can be anything! You can meet for lunch, for a beer, at a night club, anywhere! It's uniqueness is that it can be anything you want to do with someone!"
M: "Wait, so it is an all encompassing non-specific social gathering for people with any kind of relationship for any self-serving purpose at any time of the day? I think most cultures just call this a get together or date to prevent confusion."
ANSA: "Yes! However, we have a word for it which sets us apart! Isn't post-modernist thinking wonderful?!"
For those of you offended, please log off and go outside for a moment. ANSA is a fictional entity not meant to represent a stereotype or pejorative image of a Swedish person. I'll fill my repertoire with a wider array of characters in the future for the sake of equality.
Anyway, I usually do not inquire further for the sake of amicable conversation during the remainder of our Fika. It is better to surrender to the absurdity of the terminology rather than try to uproot an entire culture to impose your own reality upon millions of people. After all, how much can you criticize something you are participating in at that very moment? Yet I can deconstruct it for my own amusement and be smug about being the "only" one who has discovered the inconsistency in this kind of normative behavior. For the readers who have never studied social sciences, this is the kind of stuff sociologists get off on.
So why does this word exist? You have to remember that Sweden is a nation that has mastered branding. Many world famous concepts have been derived from Swedish innovation such as Ikea which is synonymous to cheap furniture and addictive cocaine infused meatballs. Again, concepts which exist in many cultures, yet have become a symbol of Swedish cultural exports.
Figure 2. I did not even feel bad having to pay 100,000 SEK for this box of pencils. The-run-of-the-mill Swedish hardware&stationary store was branded and laid out to perfection, like a PR-crowbar wedging the customers' wallets open.
Conversely, when thinking about branded yet interchangeable social constructions, the first one and only one that comes to mind from Finland is "Darra". Like Fika, it is a particular social habit and mode of interaction within the parameters of commonly held social values. One could even go as far as to say that Darra is a state of mind more than it is a social convention. The problem here though is that Darra refers to a severe hangover when one does not step out of ones home until the dues of last night have been ritually paid for at the porcelain altar. Conclusively, we arrive at a series of answers as to why Finnish branding has a hard time taking off and why we should probably stop trying in the first place. In fact, the same sample dialogue from above can retain its original culture clashing essence yet adopt a more depressing tone by just changing the topic:
ANSA: "So what is the idea of a Finnish Darra?"
M: "It denotes a state of mind a Finnish person has the morning after a night of heavy drinking and partying. Or not, it can also follow up on a night of drinking by oneself contemplating life's mysteries as Finnish folk singers often do!"
ANSA: "Isn't that just a hangover? We experience hangovers in Sweden too and [as far as this writer is aware at this point] don't have another word for it."
M: "No see, a Darra is not just a hangover! It also refers to the state of despair and futility and loneliness one has in the final stages of minor alcohol poisoning."
ANSA: "Yeah, that's just biology. Everyone gets depressed when they are feeling poorly. You are aware that Finns do not have a monopoly on melancholy and the themes of late 19th century realist literature?"
M: "No but you're missing the point! We plan our Darra and schedule other social events according to how much we plan on drinking the night before!"
ANSA: "And you're proud of this not just as an individual but as an entire nation? Our culture has unsavory aspects too but we save the specific terminology for the most positive ones that can be related to people from other cultures. Is this what you have to show for over 4,000 years of Fenno-Ugric cultural development?"
M: "Say, is that the sound of Finland dominating Sweden in hockey? I have to go now, maybe someone's singing "Den Glider In" somewhere..."
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