Most Warmly Welcome to the Åland Islands Emigrant Institute’s contribution to the Autonomous Åland’s Centennial Year!
Last date to register is 15 July 2022!
2022, August 15-20 we hope to welcome all our Ålanders as well as our visiting / returning Åland descendants arriving from far and near to our Åland Islands to partake in our Autonomous Åland’s Centennial Year Program. Our wish is to tie those old roots binding us together in a dialogue sharing our stories – what took place here at home and how your ancestors fared in their chosen New World.
Come celebrate our common history, to share with us your own family history created in your New World as well as to meet your relatives still living here, all who will welcome you with open arms to celebrate!
Åland 100 – together – in the middle of the Baltic Sea
You get to experience an island world of:
- 100’s of Merchant Sea Captains and pilots
- our 10-storied ferries sailing daily from Stockholm via Mariehamn to Åbo and back and from Helsingfors via Mariehamn to Stockholm and back
- our historic Captains’ houses, our age-old historic Farms, our Crofts
- our Midsummer poles
- our Stone Age history embedded deep into the soil
- our Swedish Crown Era from 11th century-1808: with Kings, a real castle and medieval stone churches
- our Russian Era 1809-1917: with the Czar and the Crimean War’s Fort Bomarsund ruins, and gigantic Neo-Classic Mail and Customs House standing in nowhere on a rock by the sea
- how in 1921 Åland was declared a part of Finland, autonomous and anew demilitarized and was turned into an exclusively Swedish language region
- nowadays Åland is populated by an assembly of 30.000+ forward moving, good-humored personalities
- a region plagued by past poverty that chased so many to seek opportunities elsewhere
The Åland Islands Emigrant Institute looks eagerly forward to your arrival and participation in these once-in-a-100-years events.
We would be most grateful if you please would circulate this information to your Åland relatives and friends!
