I got a text message from The Kid this morning.
“I ate a cotton ball and my stomach is killing me today. What should I do?”
Um…..you did what?
Yes, friends, The Kid ate a cotton ball. Apparently he and his friends (whom I now know – yay!) decided they should celebrate the Finnish holiday of Pyhäinpäivä (All Saints Day) for some reason. The celebration was complete with egg passing, attempts at traditional Finnish dances, and cotton ball swallowing.
The part about ingesting cotton balls is a little bit cloudy to me, but something about the oldest male present must eat a cotton ball to commemorate the eating of bedding to stay alive during Finnish Blight of 1728. Anyway, The Kid was the oldest male present.
I can’t find anything on the Internets about actual cotton ball consumption being a part of this holiday. I am unsure if The Kid, or one of his cronies, made this up. (The Kid isn’t even a little bit Finnish either…)
Anyway, should you care to read about his exploits, you can find them categorized on his blog. I hope someone videotaped their celebration of Pyhäinpäivä, because it sounds amazing.
I really hope The Kid recovers from the cotton ball he ate. But then again, it serves him right kind of.
This story made me laugh out loud and made me almost wish I had my own little brother to roll my eyes at. Almost….
Castor oil. Tell him to drink Castor oil to make it pass through faster!! (Will also give diarrhea)
LOL! Seriously the funniest thing I have heard in a while! I am Finnish. My great grandparents came over from Finland, and lived in Northern Minnesota. Actually around the Clouquet area. I know you have been there on your B.W. trips. I don’t know where his friends came up with this? All Saints Day is about lighting candles and going to the graves of your loved ones! I believe the tradition goes back as far as the 1300′s. However it would have been quite funny to see The Kid eat it. Silly Boy! I would take Fancy Nancy’s advice and drink the castor oil!
To my Finnish friend, Jen: There were actually no Fins present at the celebration of … I don’t have the word to copy-and-paste right now, so we’ll just say All Saints Day.
Here’s how it went down. We wanted everyone to come over to watch The Office, but we decided just watching The Office was lame, so we Wikipediaed significant holidays. The one that came up as the most recent was Finnish All Saints Day. Past that, all we did was look up names and (somewhat) real events of famous Finnish people to go with our bogus “traditions”. We basically made all the stories up, but if you look up the kings and locations, they’re mostly real.
The cotton ball was actually my idea, so I guess that serves me right … :p
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