The culture of the Finnish people was for the historians of the ancient
world a complete mystery until Tacitus, in the year 98 AD, mentioned in his
Germania a people called the Fenni, living somewhere in the northeastern Baltic
region in unparallelled squalor and poverty. The northern area referred to by
Tacitus was at that time already inhabited by peoples of various ethnic and
historical origin, and it is questionable whether the barbarians of whom he spoke were in fact
the forefathers of the present Finns or the Lapps. Through the centuries,
Finland has been influenced by several cultures, notably during the Crusades of Christianity
and during conflicts between Sweden and Russia.
Presentday life in both eastern and western Finland displays clear relics
of a pre-Christian religion. In the Orthodox region it was not uncommon as late as about
1900 for the head of the household to execute the traditional rites
immediately after
the Orthodox priest had blessed a new home. The purpose of the rites was to make
the guardian spirits favourably disposed towards the new inhabitants.