Namesdays are a Finnish tradition of attaching personal names to each day of the year, and celebrating the association of particular days with those for whom that day is named.

The celebration of namesdays has been a tradition in Finland since the middle ages. Today Finns celebrate their namesdays (or nimipäivä) according to their given name on the date given by the calendar published by the Helsinki University's Calendar Office (Almanakkatoimisto). The University owns the copyright to the list of names and their corresponding dates. There are different lists for names for Finnish, Swedish, Sami and Greek Catholic.

The namesdays originates in the list of holidays celebrated in commemoration of saints and martyrs of the Catholic Church. During medieval times the namesdays were of little significance in the Nordic countries, except for the celebration of patron saints for various guilds. A more widespread celebration of namesdays began in the 17th century, at first in the royal court and among aristocracy, but successively also among the general population. The Church of Sweden promoted celebration of namesdays over birthdays, as the latter was seen as a pagan tradition. From the 18th century and onwards the list of namesdays was modified in Sweden and Finland, but not in any other countries.

See also

• calendar of saints
• flag days in Finland
• holidays in Finland
• namesdays in Sweden

External links

• The nameday monopoly in Finland (http://almanakka.helsinki.fi/english.html)
• Swedish names (http://www.svenskanamn.com/) - in Swedish