Story of the Ice Pearl People

Long ago, before the beginning of the last Ice Age, this windy, rough-terrain peninsula - today known by the name of Helsinki - was mainly covered by water. Only the bravest and strongest people could live here. Here and there, on the top of the highest hills, you could see houses made of mammoth bone and wood that formed villages.

The most legendary people to inhabit the area are the Ice Pearl People. They were chosen as the protector of the envoy of the white winter, the Ice Pearl. The Ice Pearl gave the village one distinctive, widely admired characteristic: it was always a beautiful, fun, white winter there.

The Ice Pearl village was located at the highest point of the area that today is Helsinki, Linnanmäki. The village was gently managed by Pakkas-Matti ("Frosty Frank") and his wife Pakkas-Maija ("Frosty Frida"), who were guided by the advice and stories revealed to them by the Ice Pearl in revelations.

Back then, people made their livelihood by fishing and hunting. Once a year all the men of the region gathered together and headed towards the freezing, dark sea, fighting high waves and northern winds, hoping to catch enough fish to keep the families back home well fed for a long time.

When the men returned from the sea, all people from near and far came to celebrate their homecoming in the Ice Pearl Village. The celebration lasted 30 days and 30 nights full of good food and fun.

This kind of life went on year after year, millennium after millennium. But then one night, the Ice Pearl came to Pakkas-Matti in a revelation warning about a threat that was facing the village. The Ice Pearl told Pakkas-Matti to get all the villagers, prepare the boats for a long journey and head north, towards the home of the cold. This was done. The Ice Pearl people left Linnanmäki with the North as their only direction. To the present day no one knows where Ice Pearl led the chosen people.

But now the Ice Pearl People have returned to Helsinki with the Ice Pearl to bring back the long-awaited winter fun to the windy peninsula and to bring all people from near and far together again.