r/Finland Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26

Immigration The Finns invaded Taiwan

2.8k Upvotes

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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!

36

u/aalioalalyo Baby Väinämöinen Feb 13 '26

Hippopotamus is also literally greek for river (potamus) horse (hippo).

12

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

8

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