You may well have been sitting in an Oulu bar of late and been very confused by the sight of four young people dressed up as what looks like the Three Kings and a Star singing songs and fighting with swords. But it's not psychosis caused by too much pre-Christmas merriment. It is in fact the Oulu Christmas tradition of tiernapojat.

Star Boys

Tiernapojat (Star Boys) came to Oulu from Sweden, from where the tradition gets its name. According to Anneli Asplund, a Finnish folklore expert, the tradition derives from Medieval Mystery Plays which were used by the Catholic Church to teach Bible stories and theological ideas to the then largely illiterate audience. The mystery plays made their way to Scandinavia through students educated abroad and itinerant preachers, finally arriving in Finland in the sixteenth century. The events at some Oulu pubs this Christmas are a hang over from this. 

The singers were usually schoolboys. They began the performances in the week before Christmas and continued until Twelfth Night to earn money for the celebrations. According to Liisa Berg - who maintains a website about the Star Boys - the tradition began in Oulu and has lasted to this day. Other sites on the subject, and Anneli Asplund, claim that the tradition was revived in Oulu the late nineteenth century. But whatever the truth, the pageant is now a fixed part of the Oulu Christmas experience. It has even been depicted on Finnish stamps.


Pagan Tradition

But the Star Boys are part of a broader Pre-Christian tradition of carolling at Yuletide in Finland. These carols were orally transmitted and finally recorded at the turn of the century, according to Anneli Asplund.    'The oldest Finnish Christmas music were archaic epic folksongs. They told the Christmas story in a vernacular metre, known as the Kalevala metre.'

Asplund outlined a number of these Yuletide carols in an interview with a Helsinki University Magazine. 'The Nativity story was recounted in Tapanin virsi (St Stephen´s song) and Luojan virsi (the Creator´s song). Luojan virsi is composed of several songs about Jesus' life, in a vernacular style. The first cycle, Marjavirsi, tells how Marjatta (St Mary) picked a lingonberry, ate it and became pregnant. In the Saunanhakuvirsi (Sauna song) Marjatta is not allowed in the house by Ruotus (Herod), so she has to give birth to her child in a sauna, where horses warm the air with their breath. Tapanin virsi also relates to events surrounding the birth of Jesus. In it, Tapani, a stable hand at the house of Ruotus (Herod), goes to water his horse. Instead of drinking, the horse begins snorting, which makes Tapani wonder. Looking for the cause, he sees a star reflected on the water. He runs to Ruotus and proclaims that the star signifies the birth of a new king, Kiesus. Ruotus says that he will believe it if the cock prepared for his meal starts crowing, the ox bones on the floor starts bellowing and the wooden handle of the knife starts sprouting golden leaves. All these miracles do, in fact, occur."
    
Anneli Asplund claims that both Luojan virsi and Tapanin virsi are international: similar songs have been sung in England, for example. After the Reformation in Finland, the church started to take more control of popular religious expression. As such the songs, which Asplund argues are in themselves an extension of the Pagan tradition, began to decline. This was accelerated by the publication of a book of acceptable 'Finnish Hymns' in 1583.


Medieval Mystery Plays

But the songs that accompany the Star Boys' performance are, as with the Mystery Plays, overtly Christian. The performance begins by the four singing together in Finnish:

         Good evening, good evening, to one and all,
         To the hosts and hostesses, to all who dwell in the house.
         And we wish all a happy and good Yule,
         And that heavenly friendship that encompasses us all.

And the songs include stanzas such as

         Since a sin so great and sad shattered the Heavens
         The Lord God had to descend to the earth.
         But out of love God created this world for us
         For which the whole world greatly rejoice.

The performance involves four characters: Herod, the King of the Moors, Mänkki (who holds a star) and the Knight. During the performance there are a number of sword dances and the Herod character makes the 'King of the Moors,' who has his face painted black, kneel before him. The characters explain the Nativity Story to Herod and he accepts it eventually. The songs themselves vary slightly, however, and were sometimes used as a means of praising a particular public figure, such as the Grand Duke of Finland under Russian rule.
    
Liisa Berg describes the music as '. . . repetitive, all in one key, it has a haunting simplicity and a quasi-oriental quality that seem most fitting.'
    
The play is also not supposed to be too polished or professional, as in the original tradition of young boys trying to raise money for Christmas.

http://www.tiernakaupunki.fi/english/index.htm