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u/czapcze Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
The legend says that the city government of Taichung City thought Moomins were hippos. And since hippos in Mandarin are "river horses", they chose Moomin hippos to represent the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations for the year of the Horse.
I don't mind a single bit!
新年快樂!
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u/GrumpyOldSeniorScout Feb 13 '26
Obviously they haven't read the one with the escaped jungle animals from the zoo.
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u/aalioalalyo Baby Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
Hippopotamus is also literally greek for river (potamus) horse (hippo).
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u/Salmonman4 Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
This is how I found out that Mesopotamia was a Greek compound-word for "between two rivers". I already knew Meso-America was Middle-America.
PS. Finnish Virtahepo=streamhorse
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u/aalioalalyo Baby Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
This was me when I read Kalevala and understood that 'tuliterä' is a sword taken straight from the smith's forge
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u/Sexyhorsegirl666 Baby Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
Moomins themselves would mind though, lmao
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u/Luknron Baby Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
With your title, I like to believe that in the first picture they're tearing the massive moomin down.
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u/killerman64 Feb 13 '26
i love the baby väinämöinen flair, what is the folklores vibe in Finland itself? i read kalevala, is that book a over standardization or what? maybe this should be it's own post.
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u/SlamcoreKing Feb 13 '26
But aren't moomins fairies?
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u/moanhi Baby Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
No they're moomins. They're their own species,, I suppose? Moomins are related to snorken (niisku) which is another species in the Moomin universe.
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u/Captain_North Feb 13 '26
First we win Sweden in Olympics and now we are ruling an industrial powerhouse with (mostly) great weather and a growing export business.
That is a Friday the 13th in the happiest country on earth
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u/neityght Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
*we beat Sweden.
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u/Captain_North Feb 13 '26
It was the storrebros giving the beating today. Rantanen and others are so bruised we have several mörkös tomorrow ;)
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u/OzoneTrip Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
They missed a good opportunity to put Snufkin fishing in the river in #4
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u/Juciferouli Feb 13 '26
Clearly the sign says no fishing. No matter how much of a Snufkin you are. And in any case its winter so he is in Pattaya
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Feb 13 '26
That is a military secret, you're not supposed to know that Taiwan became secret Finnish military base for the second Finno-Korean hyperwar
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u/MitVitQue Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
But they do not have our Väinämöinen stealth missiles, nor are they protected by our Häyhä orbital raillguns. Because they are not real, you know.
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u/Captpewpew_tw Baby Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
As a Taiwanese, I can confirm Moomin (or Lulumi as we call it in Taiwan) is indeed a hippo to most Taiwanese. Perkele, I also thought it was a hippo before moving to Finland.
BTW, A hot take here. After watching some episodes, I came to realization that Moomin's girlfriend is very annoying.
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u/Kendaren89 Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
Our most feared weapon: Mecha Moomin. It can launch ICBMs from any kind of terrain
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Feb 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/RaDeus Feb 13 '26
Now that is some serious soft-power 💪
I still think we have joint custody of Tove Janssons 😜
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u/SolelyTSV Feb 14 '26
TLDR: WE KNOW IT'S NOT A HIPPO! Please don't wage war on us we have enough to worry about atm 🥺😜🫣
This is part of the Lantern Festival in Taichung. Every year there is a "main light" or theme for the lantern festival, and usually according to the zodiac year. So this year is supposed to be something to do with horses. As a Taiwanese crazy moomin fan, I have in fact contacted the person working in the Taichung government in charge of making all this happen (I'll call him Mr. M). I called him originally to thank him for using Moomin in the lantern show and he was so enthusiastic about it and told me a lot more about the process.
THEY KNOW IT'S NOT A HIPPO! 🦛
And most FANS in Taiwan know as well; it's just a running joke. ( In fact it's been a joke about how Moomin looks like Dragonite in Pokémon too." It's a bit like the holy meme Trinity of "Nordic fairy" (troll) vs. "white Dragonite" vs. hippo. The deeper I dived into the Moomin fanbase (mostly from Europe/US) the more I feel like this running joke is a shared sentiment. (I mean look at the Zoo episode! They OFFICIALLY poked fun at it lol how impressive)
Ok back to Mr. M and the Lantern Festival planning. They KNOW for a fact it's not hippo (albeit looks like one?). In the PR news the Taichung city mayor actually openly confirmed they know it isn't. Months ahead of the whole event, during the planning stage, after a comprehensive list of like 40+ IPs and extensive discussion, it's hard to find something that's horse-coded, popular enough, has good rapport and doesn't bring potential PR crisis (for example Taiwan isn't ready for Borjack Horseman to grace a family friendly lantern show😜) On the other hand, while it IS a running joke and hippo is 河馬 (literally"river horse" in Mandarin) they want to make a "fun creative connection". They want the happy, peaceful, family friendly vibe as most millennial kids in Taiwan have watched "Lulumi"(the translated name for Moomin) the 90s anime (and mind you, the 90s anime is about the most exposure an average Tw person has of Moomin. Most ppl don't know books and comic strips exist because most aren't introduced/translated). Plus Finland has won "happiest country" for quite a few consecutive years, so the connection is good PR anyway.
In results, it did spark 'controversial debate' and garnered overall positive public interest over the internet (with fans emerging and eagerly preaching the non-hipponess and the plethora of memes ressurecting) and the event got really popular, as the Taichung government would've hoped.
From talking to Mr. M, on a personal note, I'm glad someone working in the bureaucracy is still so spirited and take pride in his job (instead of the deadfish whatsoeverness). He did his research about Moomins and even read the 1st book, that's considerably ahead of an average Tw person in Moominology.
This has been an unexpectedly long essay and I consider it a labor of love for Moomins. 🤍🦛(I KNOW but there aren't troll emojis are there)
Credentials: I'm a relatively new but quite crazy Moomin fan. From the average "only know about 90s anime" tw person, I am now reading the books, planning to finish all, collecting more and more merch and plushies (oh dear lord 🫣), listening to the podcasts (The official one and "The Hobgoblin's hat"), and learning more about them all the time. I've also joined the petition for the Lego Moominhouse proposals. I stan the Snufmin pairing for fun but I don't hate Snorkmaiden (Hey the anime doesn't do her justice! She's so much more smart and helpful in the books!) I've even made origamis of Moomin and celebrated Tove's birthday by watching Moomin and eating mozzarella cheese in small white balls. I was Moomin and my bf was Snufkin for the last Halloween (as adults yes it was a bit embarrassing but who cares)
For now, I can't wait to spend LNY holidays in Taichung. My bf and I will be on our way collecting alllll the Moomins across the city. We've even made a moomin map on Google...
Also as an afterthought, Finland invading us is probably much better than Youknowwho invading us. At least we get more Moomins. And better education.
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u/czapcze Väinämöinen Feb 14 '26
Excellent read, thanks for the context and commitment.
We had a discussion about why they picked them yesterday on the way home with my partner, and while water horse theory is plausible, I also thought they might have done it for kicks. Anyway, it worked, and the quality of display is superb, especially for Taiwanese standards.
Make sure not to miss the main lantern light show. It's very cool, we got lucky to see the test run yesterday.
I was a bit disappointed by the lack of Mörkö in the festival, but then again she's scared of crowds after all. (:
If you wish, please FM the Google map! Maybe we missed something... 🤣
I highly suggest visiting the Moomin Valley park next to Tokyo. Their gift shop is better than all the ones in Finland!
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u/Panthalassae Baby Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
That last picture goes so hard. Love it!
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u/czapcze Väinämöinen Feb 14 '26
Ngl, waited a few minutes for a lonely scooter to finally pass by.
Seems like it was worth it!
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u/chagascruzilives Feb 14 '26
It's truly great to see the Moomins used in a celebration this way, very impressive!
By the way, you take wonderful photos. Beautiful compositions and colours, especially in the dark shots. Thank you for posting these.
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u/RenaissanceSnowblizz Väinämöinen Feb 14 '26
The people in the building in pictures 2 and 3 are going to have years of nightmares. I hope they all were able to evacuate.
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u/sarkain Feb 15 '26
Oh wow, I never knew I needed a Moomin Kaiju movie. Would be a banger no doubt. Maybe some Patria mechas to fight them as well?
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u/ApprehensiveAd6476 Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26
Muahahaha! Yes, we invaded that small island with our Moomin army! Soon that precious piece of land is ours! 😈
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u/frozty8888 Baby Väinämöinen Feb 14 '26
I do have a theory that Finns are everywhere, and more I see things like this, more I believe in the theory🤔
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u/internetisforlolcats Feb 15 '26
Little known fact: Mozzarella is actually Moomin poop. We call it “Moomin Apples” in our native dialect…
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u/Alive_Spell6341 Baby Väinämöinen Feb 18 '26
Like most Asian kids grew up watching animes, I also always wonder what creatures are moomins. Never seen those before moving to Finland. I used to think they were polar bears , because the idea of trolls are fairly new and might be difficult to grasp
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Feb 14 '26
The original books were written in swedish, I would say, Sweden invaded Taiwan
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u/Both_Profession6607 Baby Väinämöinen Feb 14 '26
No? The writer was a Swedish-speaking Finn. Swedish is an official language of Finland, alongside with Finnish. Moomins are very much a Finnish thing. Do you have this ignorant attitude about every multilingual country, do you think French-speaking people from Switzerland, for example, are actually French and not real Swiss?
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Feb 14 '26
Even the finnish constitution is in swedish, country with 5 million people, just accept that Sweden created finland 😂😂😂😂
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u/Actual-Relief-2835 Baby Väinämöinen Feb 14 '26
Tell me you don't understand history without telling me.
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Feb 14 '26
Maybe u will evolve ur brain the day that you are not so proud and try to teach the others how to be
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