Knightly news ...

December 6 is Independence Day in Finland and among the news items associated with the day was the award of honors by President Tarja Halonen. This year's honorees included several of my work colleagues.

A member of my unit management team was awarded Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland (the picture shows the star of the order). Congratulations, Timo!

Finland’s institution of knighthood stems from the holy orders that the Catholic Church established in the Middle Ages. There are three official orders in Finland; in addition to the Order of the Lion of Finland there is the Order of the White Rose of Finland and the Order of the Cross of Liberty. The President of Finland is the Grand Master of all three orders.

As a Brit, I am rather more familiar with the honours system in the UK, ranging from peerages through knighthoods to commanders (CBE), officers (OBE), and members (MBE) of the order of the British Empire - my neighbour Paull at home has an MBE. If you are knighted in the UK, as one of my former bosses was, your first name formally changes to be Sir xxx or Lady xxx. Here in Finland, there is no such recognisable designation. Nor is there the invitation to a royal palace to have your honour conferred in person by Her Majesty or her representative. Instead, the organisation that nominated you (most likely your employer) makes the presentation instead.

The administration of these honours is carried out from the House of the Estates (Säätytalo), on the same street as my apartment in Helsinki, so now I know what they do in there. Also notable is that recipients pay a fee based on the level of the award, to defray the administration costs (though my source notes that this is usually paid by the nominating organisation). Now that is a "cash for honours" scheme that the UK might like to consider!