Finland

Helsinki, the capital city and most populous municipality of Finland. *Photo from Wikipedia December 6 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Finland from Russia in 1917. Most of the region was a part of the Kingdom of Sweden from the 13th century to 1809, when the vast majority of the Finnish-speaking areas of Sweden were ceded to the Russian Empire (excluding the Finnish-speaking areas of the modern-day Northern Sweden), making this area the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. The Lutheran religion dominated. Finnish nationalism emerged, focused on Finnish cultural traditions, including music and – especially – the highly distinctive