City rivalry in Finland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Finland, there exists a kind of tradition of good-natured rivalry between different cities, most notably between Helsinki (the most populated city), Tampere (the third most populated city) and Turku (the fifth most populated city). The inhabitants of any two of these cities can be said to have rivalry between them, because of different reasons.

Inhabitants of Helsinki are well aware that their city is by far the most populated and most famous in Finland. This can make them seem arrogant and contemptuous to people in other cities, especially Tampere and Turku. Some people in Helsinki refer to Kehä III, the outermost of the two ring roads surrounding the Greater Helsinki area, as a "wolf border"(susiraja), outside which there is no civilisation. Outsiders refer to Kehä III as the biggest psychiatric hospital in Finland.

Those from Helsinki view people from Turku as naïve and simple-minded. In Helsinki they have a saying that the only good thing in Turku is the highway leading to Helsinki. Rivalry between Helsinki and Tampere mainly concerns ice hockey. Both cities have two famous ice hockey teams - HIFK and Jokerit in Helsinki, Ilves and Tappara in Tampere. Ice hockey fans in each city say that the teams in the other city are worthless.

Finally, Turku and Tampere also share a rivalry. Turku is far older and has had a greater impact on history, whereas Tampere is more populous and has a greater significance as an industrial city, lately also in the Information Technology business. Inhabitants in both Turku and Tampere view the people in the other city as uncivilised. A popular joke in Turku asks why children in Tampere have a flat nose. The answer is that there is a Turku midwife working in a Tampere hospital. After delivering a child, the midwife holds him/her into the glass of a window and says: "Look now, child. That way is Turku, there is civilisation."