Finnish Fooddities #5: Dropless January

Jokapäiväistä Leipää (Daily Bread) has plenty of visitors from foreign countries as well, even though it's mainly written in Finnish. Most of these visits are probably made by Finns abroad, but I want to give something for potential Nonfinns :)

This is athe 5th post in series called Finnish Fooddities and it is about Finnish food oddities. Hopefully you'll enjoy it! Check out the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th posts too!

Currently it is January, as you may have noticed. Some Finns are currently living something called Tipaton Tammikuu or in English Dropless January. Dropless January means not drinking any alcohol in a month. Apparently the tradition started in a year 1942, mainly because in Christmas and New Year time people drink huge amounts. In some countries there is Alcohol Awareness Month in April, which probably has similarities with Dropless January.

Photo: Photos8.com

Most Finns are covetous towards alcohol and drinking is a very serious problem in this country and there always is certain kind of talk at this time of year. Some say that Dropless January is only for those who have problem with drinking, but then again those who have problem have no way of completing January without a drop.

Any how, huge percent does actually practise this thing and the popularity of this thing is growing by the year. Dropless January is so powerful that it does have an diminishing effect on alcohol sales and non-alcohol drinks sales grow in Januaries. I do not know if it has any effect on violence statics though, but I do think it does.

Naturally no one admits having alcohol problems, but I do believe there are people testing their resistance in pains right now. And then again I know that some very heavy users just laugh at this tradition and pour even more, since real drinkers do not drink by drops... So they think that Dropless January is ridiculous.

Ridiculous or not, I do hope that someone with a real trouble get a good clear help from this campaign. To me this is nothing out of ordinary, a month without any wine with food or real cider now and then is easy to survive through. Alcohol in recipes, can't be done ;)

Finnish drinking culture is quite horrible, so anything to rein it in is positive to me. I'd like to think that this could be a good time to ponder ones drinking habits, but for some it could be too hard to think about alcohol but stay away from it.

Do you think Dropless January has any effect what so ever? Do you practise something like it?