President of Finland Tarja Halonen in the historical Eura dress at the annual Independence Day reception in 2001

President of Finland Tarja Halonen in the historical Eura dress at the annual Independence Day reception in 2001. The dress is an exact reconstruction of the attire of a Viking Age woman, found in a Viking burial at Eura in western Finland.

Just imagine loving your country and your people so much that you put on national and historical costumes for state holidays. In Finland this is the norm, and etiquette permits both national and period dress even at the most solemn and official occasions.

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

President of Finland Tarja Halonen in the historical Eura dress at the annual Independence Day reception in 2001

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s