Today it was time to get a couple of birch twigs to put into a vase. I think it can be said that this is a very Finnish tradition to get birch twigs inside the house when it’s still snow on the ground in nature and the spring hasn’t come quite yet.
The thing is to make the leaves grow on the twigs inside the house – beside a window in the light and sunlight that so nicely increase all the time in March. It’s all for the promise of the spring and the rejoice of the waiting when it’s so close. 🙂 And yes, some of us also eat those leaves. The young leaves are full of vitamin c.
I went to the other side of the hill in our home woods to fetch the twigs. There are numerous birch trees there. – The place you get your twigs should be far enough from roads and traffic and in some place where there is enough wild birch trees so that you are not harming yourself, anyone’s property or nature itself that much.
I guess it’s more about the feeling than the amount at this point in time. 😉
-Leena
