Street snapshot - Flag Day in Finland

Today is Minna Canth's Flag Day. Minna Canth (born Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnsson, March 19, 1844, Tampere - May 12, 1897, Kuopio) was a Finnish writer and social activist.

Canth began to write while managing her family draper's shop and living as a widow raising seven children. Her work addresses issues of women's rights, particularly in the context of a prevailing culture she considered antithetical to permitting expression and realization of women's aspirations.

Her play "The Pastor's Family" is her best known. In her time, she became a controversial figure, due to the asynchrony between her ideas and those of her time, and in part due to her strong advocacy for her point of view.

Minna Canth's most important works are the plays Työmiehen vaimo (The Worker's Wife) from 1885 and Anna Liisa, penned in 1895.

Minna Canth is the first woman to receive her own flag day in Finland, starting on March 19, 2007.

This shot is taken in the crossing of Korkeavuorenkatu and Tarkk'ampujankatu in Helsinki. Best viewed as large.