Kalevala Jubilee Oak, 1985
Old Church Park

Jubilee Oak

Kalevala Jubilee Oak grows in the park diagonally opposite to the Lönnrot statue. It was planted on Aleksis Kivi day in 1985 to signify the 150th anniversary of the first edition of the ”old” Kalevala. Initiated by the Kalevala Women's Association, and the planters from national organizations, the Kalevala Women's Association, the Helka Youth Association and the Kalevala Society, were all involved.

The City of Helsinki has banned the planned inscription slab at the root of the tree telling about the origin of the oak-tree.

Kalevala’s grant oak is a mythical giant tree, a statue of the world, surrounded by a circling starry sky. Oak tree is linked to a wide range of beliefs, as it holds the sky firmament, or when its leaves cover the moon and the sun. The poem of great oak of Kalevala, also gives Sampo a cosmological explanation of its own.

The tree that is cut down ascends to the skies forming the Milky Way.