Weigh Out Way-In

CHAPTER 57

Third, Christmas dinner

Mrs Claus says, 'Olkaa hyvät, tulkaa syömään.'

Panda asks Magpie, 'What does that mean?'

'It's the Finnish way of politely asking you to come and eat.'

The delicious smell of the ham roasted overnight and taken out of the convection oven some thirty minutes ago fills the air with a luscious smell, accompanied with the smells of the casseroles and the other Christmas foods. The Finnish elves and the four of the nine fine animals present start feeling an ever-strengthening urge to go get some and enjoy it to their hearts' content. The delicious food smells topped with the sweet, tempting, irresistable, still lingering smells of yesterday's baking of gingerbread cookies, Christmas tarts and cardamom rolls almost force them to go get some, go eat, NOW. However, out of the courtesy for the guests, they stay put in their places, restrain their insatiable appetites and let the guests be the first ones to get some.

The Chinese feel a bit puzzled because there is no waitress nor any waiter to serve them to their table so they ask Panda what to do next and get to know that they are expected to go get some by themselves.

'Oh, this is a buffet. I thought they serve us to the table.'

'It seems this is not a very customer service-oriented place.'

Panda asks Magpie for further clarification.

Panda translates the clarification into short, Chinese-style exhortations and says to the Chinese,

'qu na chi de ba ...'

'Go, take, eat!.'

But before they leave their table, Mrs Claus says, 'There is also some Chinese food available for all of us. They are on the table over there. Please feel free to take both Chinese food and Finnish Christmas food.'

The Chinese cook tells them about the Chinese foods. Panda translates that into English and Magpie in turn into Finnish. There are noodles, rice, fish (with bones in it, of course), Kung Pao Chicken (= sichuan style chicken (gong bao ji ding)), sweet and sour pork (gu lu rou) and cabbage with a sour sauce (su liu bai cai).

Now that everybody present knows what kind of food they can have, it's time for the guests to move to the buffet tables. Some of them take Finnish Christmas foods and delicacies, eating them side by side, unlike the Finns who don't have delicacies until they have finished the main course.

Respectively, some of the Finns try Chinese food too. Some want to go get some more while the others' reddened faces tell them all there is to know; it's too spicy for them.

The Finns wonder among themselves, 'Let's see how they feel about our Finnish food.'

The Christmas tarts are the quickest to disappear, then the gingerbread cookies. The cardamom rolls find some popularity too.

'No soup to drink?', wonders Panda.

Magpie is a bit amazed, 'To drink?! If we ever have any, we eat it.'

'Oh, there seems to be a difference in how we see it.'

It seems that the Chinese take ham again and salted fish too but the casseroles don't reappear on their plates after the first trial. As to drinks, they only take hot water meant for the tea, which amazes some Finns, and some also put a tea bag in their hot water. It seems they don't like cold drinks. Rosolli, a cold side dish, doesn't seem to interest the Chinese either. They are not very used to eating cold dishes, especially if it contains raw onion, and the beetroot is unfamiliar to them too in this dish.

There is something in the way the Chinese talk and in the topics they talk about that not only amaze but also trouble the Finns, (or more or less, any Westerners, for that matter). It is natural for the Chinese to talk loud, to make themselves heard, maybe because there is always a noisy crowd around them back in China. However, for the Finns, who have much more space and more silence around themselves, there is not really any need to talk with raised voices. Moreover, even though the Finns are willing to talk, at least a little, about their family members, their family members' behaviour and achievements, they seem to get a big lump in their throats when some Chinese start talking about the Finns' big noses and about their salaries. Culturalph, expert among the elves in cultures, helps them see there is once again a cultural difference playing its tricks and and causing confusion. So he recites his favourite saying,

'A bee in your bonnet?

No need to worry.

Ask me

or ask them.

That's the way

to connect.

No need to tarry.

It's like a comet,

here now,

but soon gone away.'

Culturalph implicitly directs the conversation to a safer topic. He tells the Chinese about the most important annual celebrations in Finland. Christmas is number one, of course, then comes Independence Day (6 Dec), followed by Easter (some time in the spring winter), Midsummer Festival and finally the First of May. The most religious of these are Christmas and Easter, though not many Finns attach any noticeable religious meaning to them. All of them are merely occasions to relax and have fun. There are so many other celebrations of minor importance too but not to wear out the guests he doesn't introduce any more of them. Instead, he asks the Chinese,

'What about you? What are the most important celebrations in China?'

Mr Li (Qiangdong), the oldest among the Chinese guests, has the honour, with the help of Panda, to enlighten the others in the topic. Panda explains the celebrations to the Finns.

Chinese New year takes the first place in importance and is quite similar to Christmas in the sense that it takes a longer period of time every year than any other celebration. Then Lantern Festival closes New Year time. The third most important celebration is Qing Ming (tomb sweeping), during which it's time for males alive to take good care of their deceased parents' and grandparents' tombs to honour their memory.