Kesät

Kesät is the Finnish plural form of kesä, meaning summers. In Finnish usage the term refers to the warm, bright half of the year when daylight is long and temperatures rise. The period roughly spans late spring to early autumn, with regional variation: southern Finland typically experiences summers from May or June to August or September, while in the far north the character of summer is strongly shaped by latitude and daylight hours.

Climate and geography vary across Finland. Southern coastal areas tend to have mild to warm summers, with July highs around 20°C and relatively moderate nights. Inland and especially in Lapland, summers are cooler and shorter. The midnight sun occurs at high latitudes around the summer solstice, producing almost continuous daylight for parts of Lapland. Weather in summer can include rain and thunder, but many days are sunny and conducive to outdoor activities.

Culturally, kesät are associated with outdoor recreation and leisure. Common activities include swimming in lakes or the Baltic Sea, boating, hiking, and berry or mushroom picking. The sauna remains a central Finnish tradition year-round, often used with bathing in summer. Midsummer, or Juhannus, is the major summer celebration, marked by gatherings, bonfires, and long evenings. Seasonal produce such as blueberries (mustikka), lingonberries (puolukka), and strawberries (mansikka) figure prominently in Finnish cuisine during kesät.

Linguistically, kesä serves as the root for related terms and expressions, and kesät can refer to multiple summers or to the warm seasons in general. Climate change has been associated with changes in the length and character of summers in some Finnish regions.