What does this say?

6 comments

1. May happiness enter the home, a good year as houseguest.

2. Onni tulkohon tupahan, Hyvä vuosi vierahaksi

   May fortune come to the house, a good year as a guest

   It’s basically a wish for good luck and a good year. In more basic Finnish: Onni tulkoon tupaan, hyvä vuosi vieraaksi.

3. Onni tulkohon tupahan, hyvä vuosi vierahaksi. In more modern Finnish tulkohon = tulkoon, vierahaksi = vieraaksi. 

   Translation:
   Let happiness enter the house, a good year (come) as a guest.

4. *May luck/happiness come to the hall [main room of a house]*

   *A good year (come) as a guest*

   The text is written in the traditional Kalevala poetry verse, with 8 syllables in each part and rhyming first syllables (= TUlkohon TUpahan)

5. It has symbolic bread and salt which you would give as a gift for a new home so I guess that’s an old housewarming gift.

6. And no one is going to say that there are very traditional Finnish housewarming gifts: rye bread and salt? 😀