Finnish Christmas Bazaar

First love is that special someone, or some place, or thing, that brings a flush to your face when you secretly recall the smell, the taste and the sound of it. For me, Finland is that country of first love. Although it was not my first country of residence, it was the landscape of my childhood. And because it was so long ago, I only remember the gentle and good rhythms of Suomi Finland.
The thick timbre of a Finnish man speaking English transports me once again to the hushed evergreen forests of a Finnish winter, snow glittering like diamonds in moonlight. I get equally excited about the prospect of eating Karelian pies or Pulla. I found both at the Finnish Christmas Bazaar in Bethesda, Maryland.
The bazaar is held once a year at the River Road Unitarian Church in Bethesda. As I made the turn, it seemed like a scene from the Pied Piper. But not only children were streaming from every residential side road to the wooded drive up to the church. I drove in to the parking lot in the woods. This was a key mistake. I wasted ten minutes looking for, hoping for, a parking spot. Eventually, I went out to a side street half a mile away. The bazaar had been open for an hour and I saw bags upon bags being carried away. Quick! I had to get in! The front steps had Finns and their descendants sitting in the weak sun, eating and chatting. It was not a cold day, to a Finn (45 F). I went inside and reveled in the Finnish language and Finnish faces all around me. A man who looked much like St. Nick was selling tickets for the cafeteria. The open-​face sandwiches and cakes were on display, just in case you didn’t know what a Christmas Star looked like. Most of the food cost between $ 1 – 3. Not bad. They even had gluten-​free cookies (a Finn once told me that so many Finns are allergic to gluten that McDonalds even carried gluten-​free buns).
Once I wandered in to the antechamber, I was approached by a bazaar worker who handed me a sheet which listed the silent auction items. Along the glassed in walkway, more booths selling Finnish cookbooks, gift baskets and children’s packages were manned by talkative Finns. The cafeteria crowd spilled out onto the stairs and crevices. Inside the great hall, a folk group strummed and sang, slightly audible above the din of hundreds of shoppers asking for the rye bread, the Karelian pirogi (savory rice filled pastries a bit like a rye empanada) and the Pulla (sweet cardamom bread — a bit like Challa). It was noon and the rye bread was sold out. I bought the last two packets of pirogi, at $ 6 a packet (of six). I bought some Fazer brand candy and headed out. On my way out, the santa manning the ticket booth tried to lure me in again.
I rushed home with my Finnish treasures through the red and gold woods along the Clara Barton parkway. Then I made egg-​butter for my pirogi, and with every bite, was transported back to my childhood in the land of the midnight sun.