Finland receives familial welcome
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SANDY, Utah — The president of the Republic of Finland described it as "a good family evening," and it had that flavor as Finns and friends of Finland from both sides of the Atlantic gathered Feb. 11 for the official Olympic Banquet of Finland, featuring a performance by a 100-voice men's choir of returned Latter-day Saint missionaries who served in that country.
In a private reception prior to the banquet, President Gordon B. Hinckley met with the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen.
President Halonen was in Salt Lake City with her husband to support the Finnish team. Her reference to the banquet being a "family evening" was in the context of her discussion of many Finns having emigrated to the United States over the years.
"Finnish emigrants and their descendants have not forgotten their ties to Finland," she observed in a speech to the audience gathered at the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy. "It's like a marriage between the nations. So I'm very happy to meet our dear family. Thank you very much that you have come here. I hope that we have a good family evening."
The familial feeling was fostered by the chorus's fervent performance of "Finlandia Hymn," with music composed by Jean Sibelius, in whom Finns take considerable pride. The music is familiar to Latter-day Saints as the setting for the hymn "Be Still My Soul," No. 124 in the Church hymnbook.
Written by V.A. Kosenniemi, the words to "Finlandia Hymn" proclaim the dawning of a new day for the nation after having resisted the darkness of oppression. President Halonen was visibly moved by the performance and arose after the singing to shake hands with chorus director Mark de St. Aubin and accompanist Scott G. Wood. Just before beginning her remarks, she beamed at the chorus, which consisted of returned missionaries who had served in Finland since 1946, when the mission was organized.
"I feel very strongly because of the music we've just listened to," she said at the outset. "We all from Finland, and all the friends of Finland, know how much is in this music and the history of it."
She spoke of the shared grief Finns felt with Americans following the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11. "We must do everything in order to ensure that confidence and cooperation can continue on both a national and international level between people," she said. "Today, more than earlier, both sports and the Olympic movement can have a major importance as a factor that unites people."
Earlier, the Finnish ambassador to the United States, Jukka Valtassari, spoke to the audience. In an apparent reference to the linguistic diversity of returned missionaries living in Utah, he joked: "Most people seem to speak Finnish here, and if not Finnish, at least another language. But the Olympics will be remembered, and Salt Lake City will be the name of those Olympics. Well-organized Olympics are remembered and remain in history, and Salt Lake City has a way of doing exactly that."
Tapani Ilkka, president of the Finnish Olympic Committee, spoke in behalf of more than 100 Finnish Olympic athletes in attendance and their trainers: "We are proud to be here. We have been received well. We feel that we are at home, and we thank you for that."
Also performing for the audience was the International Children's Choir of Utah, directed by Kathy Sorensen, a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and classical pianist Lawrence Gee. Jussi Kempainen, a Finnish member of the Church now living in Provo, Utah, was chairman of the event and master of ceremonies.
Among those who organized the event for the Finnish government was former Finland Helsinki Mission President James M. Parker and his wife, Beverly Benson Parker, who suggested the idea. A daughter of President Ezra Taft Benson, who dedicated Finland for the preaching of the gospel, she said her father had a special fondness for Finland and its people that she felt as she was growing up.
Among guests at the banquet were Elders Dennis B. Neuenschwander of the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Seventy, president of BYU.
E-mail: rscott@desnews.com
