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| Sleepy Head Day in Finland Unikeon Päivä - The Day of the Sleepy Head If you are in Finland on July the 27th remember to wake up early. Otherwise, you may be waken up with some water -or worse- thrown straight into a lake! Unikeon Päivä - Sleepyhead Day is a special day in Finland. But that doesn’t mean that you can sleep until late. On Sleepyhead Day the last person to get up is the laziest of the house and must be woken up by water, either right on the bed, or by carrying and throwing the Sleepy Head into the sea or a lake nearby. According to tradition, in the early Middle Ages there were seven Christians who slept in a cave for 200 years as they were hiding from the wrath of an evil Roman emperor. Apparently, when the celebration was imported to Finland around the 6th century AD, the Finns believed that if a person slept until late that day, the same fate would fall on him. Other ancient beliefs related to the Sleepyhead Day were that if it rained that very same day, it would also rain continuously during the next seven weeks. Naantali’s Unikeko-Throwing Naantali is a small picturesque coastal town near Turku, in southern Finland. This idyllic and charming resort is popular for its old architecture, its popular spa, its lively harbour, and for having the summer residence and estates of the president of Finland. Naantali is also very well known within Finland for the throwing of the Unikeko (the "Sleepyhead of the Year") into the sea. The people of Naantali wake up early on July 27th and select a well-known townsperson who will be taken from his or her bed and thrown into the sea. In 2004, the Unikeko was taken from his bed, wrapped up in sheets by previous unikekos, and passed along the pier through a honor guard made of young dressed up girls, after which he was thrown into the water. When the Unikeko got out of the water, everybody could see his identity. He was Pentti Arajärvi, the husband of the Finnish President Tarja Halonen. Submitted by Kia Heinonen, June 2005
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 On Sleepyhead Day the last person to get up is the laziest of the house and must be thrown into a lake.
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