what is this holiday i'm talking about? kekri is the year-ending harvest festival celebrated in parts of what is now finland and karelia. different communities had different names for it, my grandmother called it kekri, but römppä is also a common name in the area where i grew up.

in my family kekri was mostly celebrated by honouring the dead and enjoying the fruits of the harvest. we shared stories and walked in nature, heated up the sauna (also for the ancestors). sometimes we pulled cards. often kekri aligned with the elk hunting season so that the community festival would be around this time of the year as well. (peijaat, a memorial feast organised by the hunters for villagers, where a meal of elk meat would be shared) so i've spent more than one weekend in the kekri season helping out with the preparations.

i don't eat meat that hasn't been caught by someone i know (or myself, but i don't hunt). i no longer live in the village. i live in town far away and maybe i miss organising a community event round this time of the year, but i'm not able to create one on my own either.

this year my kekri will be quiet and reserved, celebrated in small pockets of free time i have between university responsibilities and trying to heal myself from whatever's going on with my immune system. #nordicWitch #kekri #localLore #paganism