Eighty years ago, Tove Jansson’s The Moomins and the Great Flood was published, marking the beginning of an IP empire which has swept across the world like the frost of an advancing Groke (I’ll explain later). It was conceived during the Winter War in 1939, when Russia’s invasion left 300,000 Finns homeless, as a source of comfort to Jansson herself, but also to Finland’s frightened children. The tale of the displaced anthropomorphic troll-like Moomins finding a home among the comforting and bucolic surroundings of Moomin Valley certainly struck a chord in those dark days.
“It’s got that melancholy at the centre of it but offers safety too, which is quite a Finnish thing – sheltering, safety and cosiness,” James Zambra, creative director of Moomin Characters, told me. James’s mother, Sophia Jansson, is the company’s former CEO, chair of the board and Tove’s niece.
In summertime, however, it is important first to lure the Finns out of their natural winter semi-hibernation/cosy state and into the light – for three months where there is an abundance of the stuff – accompanied by the festivals, the foraging, the water and other libations.
For eight years running, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world, according to The World Happiness Report. I won’t depress you further by telling you where the UK ranked. On the darkest winter days, Helsinki in the south only sees five hours of daylight, so I figure they must be doing something right. After my visit this summer, I’m fairly certain it’s the Finnish – and as it happens, the Moomins’ – approach to summertime that is a big contributing factor to all this joy. Who needs the beating heat of various costas when there’s a country that knows how to wring every last precious drop out of the warmest season?
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At Helsinki airport, I walk past a Moomin Cafe and two Moomin gift shops. On the train into the city, I count five Moomin tote bags, ten tops, quite a few phone cases, a babygro, a suitcase and a tattoo. Between Helsinki Station and The Marski Hotel, there is the flagship Moomin shop, a skate shop selling its own Moomin range, and a giant inflatable Moomintroll above the entrance to Stockmann, the John Lewis-esque department store. If you didn’t already know that Moomins were a Finnish creation, you definitely will before you collect your room key. Most Finns have their own Moomin mug, bearing the character they most identify with.
To get an initial feel of the Finnish summer attitude, I go to the Flow Festival, an international-grade music shindig held in the brutalist surroundings of the former Suvilahti power station. On the bill are familiar names like Charli XCX, Kneecap and Fontaines DC, but also local acts including Sexmane and Turisti. Staged in early August, this is the drink-drenched curtain down on Helsinki’s golden pause of summer – the schools go back at the start of the month after a 10-week summer holiday, with most Finns taking July off work.
Summer is mostly spent in one of the half million mökki summer cabins (that’s around one for every 10 Finns), usually by a body of water on one of the 50,000 islands of the Archipelago Sea. Most Helsikians are back in the city now, and Flow is one last tremendous hurrah for sunlight and extroversion.
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Finland is a country where contentment trumps material gain and a healthy work/life balance is supported by a strong welfare system, a symbiotic relationship with nature, a sense of community and a deep appreciation of personal space. This is reflected in the world of the Moomins. “There is a lot that reminds me very much about life here in the archipelago – in the countryside, being in a cottage, kind of getting back to basics”, says James Zambra. “It’s focusing on the small things and the comforts, and not looking for material things so much.”
This becomes apparent as I dart around the Helsinki coast: on the island of Vallisaari, where the third edition of the Helsinki Biennial invites reflection on the relationship between humans and nature, with sculptures nestled amongst the island’s wilds; at Wino, where the disposition towards the seasonal, conservational and local manifests in superb plates encompassing Finnish favourites such as fresh fish, mushrooms, berries and liquorice; and in Löyly, a bougie addition to Finland’s all-encompassing sauna culture, where I plunge (well, lower myself tentatively) into the Baltic after a smoke sauna.
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A two-hour, annoyingly reliable train ride to the west and I set foot in Turku, where I am based in the Solo Sokos Hotel, on the kind of warm and bright day that would help anyone forget the endless nights and low temperatures of the winter months. This thriving city with a great market and a lively, accessible arts scene is a gateway to the archipelago and one other important Finnish landmark. A 20-minute drive to the wealthy town of Naantali, and my guide and I stroll through the marina, home to mid-sized yachts and speedboats all reliably serviced by a range of view-adjacent restaurants. The crowds become denser as we head towards a rather unassuming bridge and what appears to be just another archipelago island, but – this is the bridge to Moomin World.
This is not a traditional theme park – there are no rides – but this oversized child got to explore the Moomin House, Snufkin’s Camp and the Groke’s cave. The nationalities and ages of the visitors surrounding me demonstrated what an international concern the Moomins have become – there’s even a more traditional theme park in Japan, where Moomin, a 1990s anime TV series, was made.
Naantali’s Moomin World closes in the autumn, but the island and the outside areas of the park remain open to explore – very much in line with Finland’s much-treasured “right to roam” law – and I’m told that none of the hibernating exhibits has ever been subject to vandalism.
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Later, after catching a free car ferry over to the island Palva, I sit on the deck of Cafe Laituri next to the lapping water as an old sailboat on the opposite shore makes its way through a tree-cloaked cluster of islands. The cafe owner tells me that the Finnish melancholy is always there – “the day after midsummer, we all say that winter is coming” – but this is melancholy in its best sense. Not pessimistic or glum, but wistful and protective, being aware of the dark even in sunnier times, and vice versa.
Reflecting on the message of the Moomins, James Zambra tells me: “It’s an escape to some kind of utopia, but it’s not all happiness and joy all the time. It’s more of a kind of mirror to real life.” Knowing the summer is going to end somehow makes it more special and, boy, do the Finns make the most of it while it lasts.
Of course, I couldn’t leave Finland without getting a Moomin mug. Mine has the Hattifatteners characters on it, “forever wandering restlessly from place to place, in their aimless quest for nobody knows what”. (Comet in Moominland, 1946)
Matt Charlton was a guest of Visit Finland, Helsinki Partners and Visit Turku.
How to get there
Finn Air offers return fares from London Heathrow to Helsinki starting at £167 in Economy and £495 in Business Class. Flight time is around 2 hours 50 minutes.
Where to stay
The Marski Hotel is centrally located in Helsinki.
The Solo Sokos Hotel is agood option for Turku, just a short walk from the station.
