enquiry

[tauno]

How many Finn Halls in Canada? USA /

How many churches of Finnish origin are there in both countries?

Are we that fragmented?

Your views please/

[Ville]

I know of ...

Berkeley Finnish Brotherhood Hall, and another Finnish building in Berkeley (I recall, there was some kind of division between these buildings... maybe it had to do with "reds" and "whites"?). Lantana, FL, also has at least two Finnish halls, although I think they're there due to great number of Finns rather than differing views of the local Finns.

Boston has Finnish Technology Center, Houston has Finland Trade Center, and San Diego has House of Finland http://viestit.etusivu.net/old/smile.gif I'm assuming there must be some kind of Finnish halls in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington state...

The Dallas area has a Finnish Lutherian community and a worship (once a month, I believe). Lantana, Florida area has apparently also a quite active parish. And I recall hearing of a Finnish church in New York City.

But what do you mean by "fragmented"? We are spread out on a large area, and so a single Finnish halls would not be sufficient to serve all the people. Unfortunately the Finnish halls that do exist don't seem to do much at least to me (due to their "time past" feeling).

I think it would be cool if there were Finnish halls around the country, around the world that would have, for instance, weekly sauna nights http://viestit.etusivu.net/old/smile.gif But somehow it seems Finns haven't ever been very interested in organizing much of activities within the cultural group (as compared to many other cultures, even our fellow Scandinavians like Swedes, Danes or Norwegians whose organizations seem to be very active in many areas of, again for example, the U.S.).

When Finns get together it's always either folk-music and folk-dancing or then it's a happy hour meeting in some bar (Finnish Urban Network has lots of activity in New York City, for instance, but majority of the meetings take place in bars...). :sigh:

[karl]

As few years ago my sister had several Family Sauna Shops in San Francisco and tried to get the Finns in the area use her facilities as a meeting place without much luck. She did have the Finnish and Russian Consulates as regular customers, however.
When we were children there was Normandia Club that my Finnish parents belonged to here in New Jersey. Membership was open to Scandinavians by birth or linage or being married to one. The Club eventually died out (pun intended) because the 2nd generation children scattered and their parents were gone..died or in Florida. It was great place and I still see some of the remaining friends of my parents. I signed up recently for a Friends of Norway club claiming Finnish heritage and have never received a call!