Herättäjä-Yhdistys Publishes 1400 Photos of herättäjäjuhlat From 1900’s

Herättäjäjuhlat has been a massive event since 1890’s. A lot of information has been recorded — including photos quite an early stage.

- Nowadays photos of herättäjäjuhlat are published yearly on the website in real time, but the older archives were unorganized and therefore are only partly available digitally, says communication designer Kaisa Viitala from Herättäjä-Yhdistys.

The association was given a stipend by the Finnish Culture Foundation’s Southern Ostrobothnia department. In 2020 Master of Arts and building conservator Elina Syväoja worked in the project for four months. She scanned, organized and listed photos from a period of 90 years.

Herättäjä-Yhdistys has published 1400 photos. The oldest photo is taken in Nilsiä in 1906. For now, the latest photos publishde at the site are taken in Joensuu in 1995.

- We don’t have photos of all the events in the beginning of 1900’s, but dozens taken in 1990’s, says Kaisa Viitala.

Viitala recommends people to see photos of Viipuri herättäjäjuhlat in 1931. She also suggests browsing the photos starting from the oldest and ending to the newest to see the change of the world.

- In the older times there was ”dark people” wearing ”körtti” costumes, but during the decades the costumes have gotten ”lighter”, there are women ascending to speaker stage and there is also a lot of joint program among the services.

From decade to decade, there is one phenomenon that always stays: young generation attending Körttijuhlat and that can be seen in the photos.

Herättäjä-Yhdistys association welcomes additional information about persons, places and events seen in those 1400 photos.