Today is the feast day of Luonnotar or Ilmatar the Finnish creator-goddess, who inspired the tone-poem by Sibelius.

According to Finnish legend, in the beginning, there was only the Goddess Luonnotar.

Tone poem

There was no world then, only the chaos of the Dream Time. She was becoming bored of being alone in the void of emptiness, so she let herself fall into the primal ocean where she floated.

As she floated, a cosmic duck swam by looking for a dry place to build her nest and lay her eggs. She came upon the goddess floating, and perceived her knee to be a small island. The duck climbed up onto Luonnotar’s knee and laid 3 eggs. When the goddess noticed the nest, she jerked in surprise, tossing the eggs and the duck back into the sea. The eggs broke, and in breaking, formed the world as we know it. The eggshells became the Earth. The egg whites became the sky, the yolks joining to become the sun.

To toast Luonnotar today, drink this fizzy egg cocktail:

Cosmic Citrus Egg Flip

1 & ½ shot whiskey

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon sugar

1 whole fresh egg

1 shot orange liqueur

Soda water

I am using an orange liqueur called Coeur du Comte I found at my local Lidl last weekend, but triple Sec or Cointreau would be fine. An interesting variant would be Lakka – Finnish cloudberry liqueur.

Combine all ingredients apart from the soda water in a chilled shaker and shake vigorously. To get the best froth, do a dry shake first, without ice. Then add ice, and shake again for at least a minute.

Strain into a highball glass & top up with soda.

While you shake, chant this ancient Finnish spell to banish bad luck and regain control of the unruly elements of your life:

Walk as I tell you

move as I move you

break as I shake you

Like I move the castles,

shake the lakes,

now I tell the evil,

order the foe:

move away at this hour,

break till the end of day

As Luonnotar transformed the World Egg, so you perform your own act of transformation as you break & shake this egg into a different form. Take strength from that knowledge as you chant and shake!

Nibble on a dish of potatoes when you get hungry. They are Finland’s favourite food.