Finnish Swedish Heritage Day

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Finnish. (November 2014) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Finnish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at [[:fi:Ruotsalaisuuden päivä]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|fi|Ruotsalaisuuden päivä}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Swedish. (November 2014) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Swedish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Swedish Wikipedia article at [[:sv:Svenska dagen]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|sv|Svenska dagen}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Finnish Swedish Heritage Day
Flag of the Swedish-speaking Finns
Official name	Swedish: Svenska dagen, Finnish: Ruotsalaisuuden päivä
Observed by	Finland
Significance	celebration of the Swedish heritage and culture of Finland
Date	6 November
Next time	6 November 2025 (2025-11-06)
Frequency	annual
Related to	Gustavus Adolphus Day (Sweden)

Finnish Swedish Heritage Day (Swedish: svenska dagen, Finnish: ruotsalaisuuden päivä) is a general flag flying day, which is celebrated in Finland on 6 November. The day celebrates the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, their culture, and the bilinguality of Finland.^[1] The main celebrations are aired on the radio, and many smaller celebrations are held around Finland in schools. Usually, the song Modersmålets sång is sung, celebrating the mother tongue. The Finnish Swedish Heritage Day is celebrated on the same day as Gustavus Adolphus Day in Sweden, the day that king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed at the Battle of Lützen in 1632.^[2][3]

The Finland Swedish Heritage Day was created in 1908, when the newly founded Swedish People's Party of Finland decided to celebrate a day for the Swedes. The intention was to strengthen the Swedish-speaking Finnish community. The reason why the day of the death of king Gustavus Adolphus was chosen was because this also was the time when the empire of Sweden was founded. In the beginning, the celebrations largely circled around the king's persona. During the language strife of the 1930s the celebrations were overshadowed by street fights between Finnish and Swedish groups. Finnish-speaking students saw this day as a day for celebrating "aggressive imperialism".^[4] During the Second World War, both sides stopped fighting each other and emphasized that both language groups were part of Finland, thus the celebration of the day spread outside the political spectrum. Today, the day is led by Swedish Assembly of Finland.^[5] The day is an official flag-flying day in Finland since 1979.^[6]