North Calotte #20 – Hetta (travel in Finland, Sápmi, Lapland, arctic europe)

Описание: Playlist with all episodes:    • Travel in Finland, Sweden, Norway, North C...  
Hetta is the main locality in the Enontekiö municipality. However, it doesn't say "Hetta" on signs and maps but rather "Enontekiö." Except, sometimes it does. Enontekiö means "the place of the river's origin," referring to Lake Ounasjärvi. The town, Enontekiö or Hetta, whichever you prefer, is located on the northern shore of the lake. The name Hetta comes from a surname, Heikki Hetta, who moved to the area from Övertorneå in the 1690s.

In the entire Enontekiö municipality, there's only one urban area, and that's Hetta.

During World War II, the German forces burned down everything they could see in Lapland, both in Finland and Norway. As a result, almost all the buildings up here today are younger than 80 years. The new church in Hetta was completed in 1952 with the help of funds from the American Lutheran Church.
Today, almost 80 years after the end of World War II, the Russians are once again exhibiting the same behavior in Ukraine. After the Russians have been driven out of Ukraine, the Ukrainians will need assistance to rebuild their cities.

Yrjö Kokko is a well-known author in Finland strongly associated with Hetta. He was not born here, and he died and is buried in the south, but he spent a significant amount of time here, and it was here that he built a cottage for himself called Ungelo's torppa. Yrjö Kokko wrote many books and the two books that he wrote about the whooper swan are said to have saved it from extinction. When he started writing the first book, it was estimated that there were only 15 pairs left in all of Finland, and the rescue of the whooper swan population is considered one of the great conservation achievements in Finland. Today, there are 11,000 breeding pairs in the country.
The whooper swan became Finland's national bird in 1981, and it is also depicted on Finnish 1-euro coins. The whooper swan has always been a special and mythical bird in Finnish and Baltic folklore, even considered sacred in Karelia and Lapland. However, it was widely hunted, and the population was already weak in the early 1900s. During the war years in the 1940s, there was poverty and a shortage of food, and a swan is a lot of meat.

The road between Kautokeino in Norway and southwards in Finland passes through Hetta, so there is some traffic in those directions through the town. However, the road eastwards from Hetta is off the beaten path, and you won't encounter any trucks. Hardly anything else either.

In 1964, The Beatles had five songs in the top-ten list in Finland, but the one that topped the chart that year was Katri Helena with the song “Puhelinlangat Laulaa,” and both the composer and songwriter are Finnish. The song is about vagabond romance and a bit of love.
Here's your chance to enjoy it!
   • Puhelinlangat laulaa