Liminka 1477 -

1. Introduction

Liminka lies on the coast of Gulf of Bothnia. Liminka has risen from the sea and has been known for its flat meadows throughout the times. Liminka has been enjoying a nice position near Oulu. Oulu is the pumping heart of northern Finland. Liminka benefits the presence of Oulu in the form of services, which only a big city has to offer. Still, Liminka is very close to nature and is a safe place to live in. Living in the countryside is a serious alternative for city dwellers. That´s the main reason for Liminka being one of the fastest growing areas in Finland. The Liminka municipality is prepared for one and a half thousand increase in population until 2006. Besides population, Liminka is concerned about sustainable development, which is vital for agriculture.

2. Continental Drift Movement

Liminka area has been known for its flat meadows through the times. The scenery of Liminka, however, has not been safe from changes. Partly this is due to Liminka lying so low near the sea level. The continental shelves are constantly moving and Liminka is arising from the sea. The shoreline in Liminka has moved several miles towards the sea to the west.

The ground in Liminka quite often becomes swamp, which is understandable for this ancient sea bottom. It has demanded endless hard work of peasants to dry these swamps to fields and dig ditches.

3. Climate

Considering the northern position, Liminka has relatively nice, mild, climate. The effect of the sea to the climate is obvious. The average temperature of the year in Liminka is about 2.5 centicrade. Effective cultivation time in the year is about 150 days starting from the beginning of May and ending at the beginning of October. During that time the average temperature of a day is at least +5 centigrades. The areas near the sea are more safe from frost during the cultivation time, because water can hand over some heat to the fields.

The average rain rates for a year are close to 500mm, but there can be some exceptional years when it rains a lot more.

4. Ancient Liminka

Liminka gathered many colonists from different sides of Finland. More and more people moved from the south to settle in Liminka area during the Middle Ages. This was due to a peace treaty written at Pähkinäsaari in 1323, in which the border line was drawn near Liminka. This tempted many colonists from Novgorod and Karelia to move to Liminka. Travelling was made easy by rivers and the Oulu river carried thousands of colonists to the Liminka area.

This was a thorn in the royal spine of Swedish King, Gustaf Vasa. He didn´t want to lose the area under Novgorod and Karelia and also Western colonists were encouraged to move to the Liminka area.

Both of these colonist groups made it possible for Liminka to grow very fast during the Middle Ages. This Swedish aspiration to take a tight control in the Liminka area was followed by some serious conflicts. The area also received a strong German influence thanks to trade.

One of the most important elements in the Swedish battle against the Eastern settlers was religion. The Roman Catholic parish was founded in Liminka by a Swedish King and people started to be babtised in the Roman Catholic church and also the administration was established by the Swedes. This, of course, made the Novgorodians very upset, because they were Orthodox and they also thought the land was leagally theirs.

The Liminka area was a fierce battle field for centuries. The conflicts with Novgorod ended up in burned buildings and slaughtering. People were eager for vengeance on both sides and terrorising never seemed to end. Erik Krankka was even able to make a peace contract, but the Swedish King of that time, Johan the third, refused to sign it. The Russians used their opportunity and attacked Liminka during these negotions and butchered and terrorised. It´s said that blood has colored the clay ground red in Liminka.

5. Architecture

Liminka has lots of old buildings, which are kept in good condition, so that traditional house building will not be forgotten. In the Middle Ages farmers used to compete who had the most beautiful house. This is the house of Ahtola. It was seperated from the house of Jutila for gravedigger Aappo Ahtola. It consists of three parts: cold room in the middle, dining room and porch. The house also has a sauna and two buildings for cows and grain.

6. Catholic Church

The church was the first to create administration over the area. As early as in the 14th century people in Liminka area were Catholic Christians . The independent parish of Liminka is mentioned for the very first time in the year 1477. This is mentioned in a letter written by the bishop of Turku in which Liminka is forced to pay taxes to the church. The taxes were called "tenths" and they included crop and other products. As the name tells, the parish had to give one tenth of the production to the church.

It´s believed that Liminka had a church even before that. It seems that this first church was burned by the Russians in 1454. The church was rebuilt over and over again four times until the Russians finally had enough.

The first pastors of Liminka came from the south-west Finland. The most areas around the Oulu lake were attached to Liminka during the hostilities with the Russians and pastor held a lot of power- which showed in his incomes. The pastors made negotiations and translated texts into Finnish.

For twenty years Liminka was wide and broad and the heart of the whole northern Finland. But along years the parish of Liminka was divided into smaller ones and in the 17th century Liminka had shrunk from the golden years.

The parish and municipality were not separated from each other until the change in administrational laws in 1860s. The pastor held meetings where people gathered to talk about common concerns. Desicions considering matters like building bridges and fire safety, for instance, were made together, but there was no one to hold executive power.

7. Government Nowadays

Liminka of the 1990s has almost 6000 inhabitants. Every four years inhabitants elect the Municipality Council consisting of 18 members. All 18 year old inhabitants can vote and stand as candidates. The election is proportional.

Liminka local council includes four political parties. Central Party supervises the benefits of the farmers and has as much as 16 members in the local council. Other members are Labor Party and Conservative Party, with have four members, and Social Democratic Party with three.

The Municipality Council chooses Municipality Government. Municipality Council is responsible for economy. It determines the basis for all events in the municipality. When the Council has made its decisions the Government exercises its executive power.

Every citizen in Finland must belong to some municipality. One becomes a member of a municipality if he has a business there, owns land there or lives there. Members are to pay taxes to their home municipality. They can also benefit from the services offered by municipality.

In addition to voting, but members have some other ways to take part in decisions in the municipality they live in. Members can make initiatives to the Municipality Council. All initiatives are handled within a year. The Municipality Council is responsible for informing the inhabitants about the progress of the initiative.

If at least five per cent of the inhabitants want to organize a public vote about some matter, the Municipality is forced to let this happen, but the Council doesn´t have to obey the result of voting. It should, however, be advisory to the Council.

Municipalities have some tasks to be forced by laws. Healthcare spends almost a half of the Liminka budget. Other important tasks are education and social care.

8. Sources of Livelihood

Hunting was vital for the first tribes in the Liminka area. The hunting produced meat to the tribes. The game included big animals: geese, reindeer, and earlier also bears. Animal fur and skin were also in great demand. They could be used to pay tenths, taxes.

Fishing offered some extra food and lamberns were caught from the Liminka river and people went as far as to Oulu lake to fish pikes. From the sea people caught seals. Hunting and gathering stayed among the sources of living as long as till the 19th century. They offered some help during the crop failure years in the 1830´s. The tribes hunted with spears and bows. Various traps were also used. Meat was stored by salting, smoking and drying.

In the 16th century peasants were forbidden to sell goods to foreigners. Since the area had a lot Russian and German contacts many peasants got some extra living by trade.

The fields and meadows in Liminka offered naturally good prerequisites for farming. Liminka had an average of 5-7 cows in a house. The largest farms could have nearly twenty while the smaller ones were happy with one or two cows. Butter was a product of great importance, although the cows weren´t very productive only 20kg of butter a year each.

Cultivating had two main lines in Liminka. The land in Liminka becomes easily swamp and it demands endless hard work to convert swamps into fields and dig ditches. In the forests people cultivated by slash-and-burn method. People ate mostly turnips until the arrival of potatoes. Barley has always been one of the most important cultivation plants, because it can survive well in the rather short cultivating period of the north. However, the crops couldn´t always feed everyone and more food had to be bought from the south. It´s worth reminding that in Finland there were no slaves at any time.

In the beginning of the 20th century Liminka started to use some agricultural machinery to help effective work on the fields. Most machines and mills were owned together and used in turns.

Although Liminka seems to be a very agricultural community there aren´t great numbers of farmers any more. Only one tenth of inhabitants are farmers. Industry and services are the main employers.

9. Spiritual Activities

People´s knowledge started to develop after school function established in the mid 18th century. There was an active reading club in Liminka where people gathered to read newspapers together. This peoples activity soon led into building of library, which was first private.

Today Liminka has its own upper level comprehensive school and several primary schools. Liminka also has a second level education in form of High School.

Among people some famous artist. Abrahan Ojanperä was a singer, who traveled throughout the land and ended up teaching singing in Helsinki University. When he was in Liminka he used to sing in his balcony every morning.

My personal favourite, however, is Vilho Lampi. Now is the celebration of his 100th anniversary. Lampi was a wonder child of painting. Even in school there was always a whole wall covered with Vilho´s paintings. Vilho Lampi also traveled around the world and studied in Paris. However much he traveled, he still remained that funny man, who always told jokes in dances and other occasions. He was forced to paint most of his works at night, because he had to run the household all day. In his late years Vilho got depressed for personal reasons and killed himself by jumping into a river. But his paintings live forever!