Larry the Letter Carrier jumped into Finland the other day and I began telling him about the WFFW and he was like, whoa mate – put it in a letter so I can share with my online friends.
Hi, my name is Eino; I am from Lapland in Finland. We recently started the WFFW – Wrestling Ferocious Fearless Wolverines wrestling team. I want to tell you a little about our team, training, and our first tournament.
Wolverines are known to be ferocious and fearless, so we started a wrestling team to show how ferocious and fearless we are! Wolverines like to wrestle. I know we look mean and sound tough, but we are all good friends, and it is just the way we play. We also have good sportsmanship and take wrestling very seriously. We go to training camps in the summer months. In Lapland, we have this thing called the Midnight Sun. During the Midnight Sun we have endless days. From June to July the sun does not set. We can train all day every day! We train to wrestle to win, but we also train to wrestle so we do not hurt each other. Our moves are much more like dancing than wrestling. 1-2-3 hug, 1-2-3 let go, 1-2-3 hug again, 1-2-3 fall to the mat. The mat is soft and a little bouncy. Our wrestling is so much like dancing that the coach plays music to help us improve our moves! We spend long endless days wrestling. We sometimes go into the forest and climb trees and wrestle out on the limbs - this is to help us keep our balance.
Other times we practice in the lake - so more like swimming - this helps us with our breathing and pacing ourselves so we can endure the time in the wrestling ring. Once the Midnight Sun starts to set, our training season is over. We get to go home until tournament time.
My home is in Nuorgam – it is in the extreme northern part of Lapland. At home, WFFW team members must keep up their training. We team up with friends to practice our moves. Some of those moves are the Bear Hug, you grab your opponent and hug them tight until they fall to the mat; Lapland Escape, this is a way to get free from your opponent’s grasp. You lean back against the opponent then push forward really hard to break free of the hold; the Finland Roll, if your opponent is on top of you, you roll your shoulders to the mat and grab their arm, the roll off of you and then you can pin them to the mat; the Cradle, this is much like the Bear Hug – you grab and hold your opponent and rock back and forth until you fall to the mat. Once on the mat, you score the most points by holding your opponent to the mat until the referee counts them out.
As November approaches and the Polar Nights begin to creep across Lapland, we head to Inari for the tournament. The interesting thing about wrestling tournaments is that they take place at night. Polar Nights is the opposite of the Midnight Sun, during this time the sun never rises, and Lapland is in darkness except for the light of the moon that glistens on the snow. Everyone has lanterns to see. The other interesting thing is we wrestle in an ice ring. It is very cold. All the moves we practiced are now twice as hard since we are slipping and sliding on the ice. We wear helmets, elbow, and knee pads to prevent injury. The artic foxes tried to do the Bear Hug, until both slip on the ice, fall, and spin out of the ring. No points for either of them. Then the bears go at it, Pekka Bear is on his front and back paws with Otso Bear bearing down on his back. Pekka leans forward, lowing his shoulders to the ice, grabs Otso’s arm and shows how the Finland Roll is done! Pekka Bear takes the points.
Next up are Erica and Liv the artic wolves. They prance on the ice with ease and with their padded paws do not slip. Next, they are up on their hind legs grabbing each other and rocking back and forth – doing the Cradle Hold. They rock and rock – each time getting lower and closer to the ice but neither one goes down. Practicing on the tree limb really helped them with their balance. They end in a tie! Next, I am up against Kaarl. He is a little larger than me and has a meaner snarl. I prepare myself to slide down on the ice. I use the Lapland Escape to free myself from his hold, and then reverse the hold so now he is on the ice. I got the points and won our tournament.
The tournament ends with a night of celebration under the Northern Lights also called the Aurora Borealis. This is an amazing light show of dancing waves of green, blue, with some pink and yellow.
Remember, writing is right on! So, write a comment below.
Your friend,
Eino Wolverine
Do you remember? What country is Eino from? What happens during the Midnight Sun? What happens during the Polar Nights?
Additional tidbits – Finland has over 180,000 lakes! Forests cover more than 75% of Finland. There are only about 200 people living in Nurogam. The Northern Lights can be seen about 200 nights out of the year in Lapland! There are also Southern Lights called Aurora Australis. What are these light shows? Energized particles escape the sun creating a solar storm and when these particles reach the magnetic field of the earth, they are dispersed toward the north and south poles where they bump into atoms and molecules of gases and explode into the incredible colorful waves of light. Research shows that Finland is one of the cleanest and greenest countries in the world. It is also said to be the happiest place on earth!
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