”It was the time of the Bridge Dances in the 1980s, when old and young people who had moved away from Kaustinen came in large crowds to the Penttilkä bridge and the dairy yard to dance on the Wednesday of the festival. The next day, they and their families turned up at the festival site. Thursday was a day when we heard an extraordinary amount of people shouting joyfully to each other: ”Is that you? Oh yes, it's been a long time since we've seen you? Is it true that you only meet here?” - Terttu Hanhikoski
Over the years, Festival Thursday, or Kaustinen Day, has become a day of happy reunions, when former Kaustis residents bump into each other in the festival spirit. The joy of reunions has been shared at the traditional meeting of the Outer Caustonians.
This year, the Outer Cossacks will meet at the Köyhäjoki Village Festival at Köyhäjoki Mäntymaja. Rumour has it that the event is about to get even bigger and better!
Invitation and more information about the event on Thursday 11.7. you can get by leaving your contact details
at http://bit.ly/ulkokaustislaiset.
For more information, you can also call the municipal information number 040 6527 692.
The event is organised by Kaustinen Municipality, Kaustinen Folk Music Festival and the Kaustinen Association of the Pensioners' League
What meeting of outsiders?
Terttu Hanhikoski describes:
It was the time of the Bridge Dances in the 1980s, when old and young people who had moved away from Kaustinen came in large crowds to dance on Penttilkä Bridge and the dairy yard on the Wednesday of the festival. The next day they and their families turned up at the festival site. Thursday was a day when we heard an extraordinary amount of people shouting joyfully to each other: ”Is that you? Oh yes, it's been a long time since we've seen you? Is it true that you only meet here?”
Why not organise a get-together for former Kaustis residents, where old
acquaintances, friends and relatives could socialise? And so on Thursday of the festival week, Kaustinen Day, the people of Kaustinen were invited to meet. I might have received a phone call
from somewhere further afield, ”Why don't we get the call of the Aussies, after all, we're ex-Caustians as well as neighbours? ”
At the first meeting of expatriates, the middle school's ballroom and lobby were packed with former residents. The chatter was so overwhelming that when the mayor tried to make a welcoming speech, he had to stop in the middle. But that was out of order! And it didn't have to be, because the expatriates had come to meet each other.
The meetings, which became very popular in the early years, were held in the parish schools,
At the Rock Pavilion, the Municipal Hall, etc. Later, they were attached to the Village Concerts, touring around the municipality, and guided bus tours told visitors about Kaustinen's history as well as current news. At the best of times, a couple of buses went to Salonkylä and three buses to Köyhäjoki, from where the return journey was detoured via Lumppio.
This summer's meeting of the Outer Caucasians will be held on 11.7. in Köyhäjoki Mäntymaja again and you can get there immediately after the Pelimannihartaude via Nääting. The guided tour will update familiar guests on Kaustinen, but also introduce them to the time of Mats Nääting, or Retu-Mat, and shed light on the connections between the famous Kuusisto family and Näätink. In the village song, the full spectrum of Köyhäjoki's talents will take to the stage one after the other, and the municipality will announce its Outdoorsman of the Year. The programme and socialising will be accompanied by the opportunity to enjoy
a traditional caustic cheese roast cooked by the village chefs. The municipality provides cranberry coffees.
The rest of the day will be filled with a rich programme of events on the festival site. Welcome!
Finally, the story of the betting in Nääting:
Betting
Host Oskari Kaustinen (Oska of Peltola) lived in Kaustinen in the 1930s. He owned fields in the hinterland of Nääting, although he actually lived in Puhkio, a village in the church. At that time there was no proper road to Näätinki, and people went there on foot or, in the summer, on a side road pulled by a horse. Once Oska, returning from a haymaking trip, stopped by Heikki's yard in Nääting. The men sat down on the steps of the cottage to have a prairie meal and admired a large stone in the middle of the yard, the size of a playhouse.
Heikki mused:
- I wonder how to get rid of that?
- Of course I can get it off, Oska said.
- "You can't get rid of a fool like that," Heikki suspected.
After some debate, the men made a bet.
A few days later, Oska came to Heikki's yard with the necessary tools. First, he got some sturdy stones and started digging out the soil under the stones. As the mound expanded, he cut the appropriate lengths from the coils and placed them vertically under the stone. The work continued for a few days, and finally the stump was the size of a stone. Oska was certainly not timid, for he dared to shovel under the stone. Next, he gathered twigs, rubbish, sticks and other combustibles, filled the stone with them.
and set them on fire. Oska kept feeding the fire until the poles burned down and the stone collapsed into the mound. He levelled the ground around the stone, but noticing that a little of the stone remained visible above the ground, he thought:
- I should have gone a few more shovel sticks deeper!
However, Oska won the bet. We don't know what the winner got, but the sharp-eyed
a weasel walker might notice a stone still peeking out of the ground today.
Oskari Kaustinen had done stone work before, he had made a great tiled stone cover for the winch well in the same farmstead, which can still be seen in Nääting at the so-called Heikki site.
Source: interview with Tapio Huhtakanka in the archives of Heikki Känsäkanka.
Terttu Hanhikoski, old festive rose