Radio Selkouutiset Sunday 24 December 2023
Christmas peace. Hurst aid. Good Christmas spirit collection. Tarja Halonen. Weather.
Christmas peace
Christmas peace was declared in Turku’s Vanhalla Suurtor today at 12 o’clock on Christmas Eve. The declaration was read from the balcony of the Brinkkala house by protocol manager Mika Akkanen. This was the 11th time that Mika Akkanen declared Christmas peace.
The declaration of Christmas truce is a ceremony with a long history. The declaration of Christmas peace has been read in Turku for 700 years. The tradition started already in the 14th century.
The declaration of Christmas peace came over the radio for the first time in 1935.
Hurstinavu Christmas party
A traditional Christmas party was organized at the Helsinki Messukeskus for people with little money. At the Christmas party organized by the Hurst family’s Hurstinavu, people receive Christmas food. People are also given food packages to take home.
More than 1,000 people participated in the Christmas party. The President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö also visited Messukeskus’ Christmas party. He thanked for the Christmas party and said that the Hurst family does important work for poor people.
Good Christmas spirit collection
The Hyvä Joulumieli collection helped 22,000 poor families this Christmas. With the collected money, 70 euro gift cards were purchased, with which people can buy food.
The collection was organized by the Finnish Red Cross and the Mannerheim Children’s Welfare Association. The collection was organized in cooperation with Yle. There were also large grocery stores.
Tarja Halonen
President Tarja Halonen turns 80 today on Christmas Eve. Halonen was the President of the Republic of Finland from 2000 to 2012.
Tarja Halonen is the only woman who has been the president of Finland.
Weather
Today, Sunday, it is snowing especially in Lapland. It is also snowing in places in central Finland. Snow falls especially in Lapland and in some places also in the central parts of the country.
The temperature is between -1 and -10 degrees throughout the country.
There will be no big changes in the weather tomorrow on Christmas Day and on Boxing Day on Tuesday. It doesn’t snow very much anywhere in Finland.
Today on Christmas Eve the driving weather is bad in some places in Lapland and tomorrow the driving weather is bad in North Karelia and Kainuu.