Johannes Haapasalo’s hero statue, sculpted in 1920, was Mikkeli’s first public artwork.
Remembrance Day is observed on the third Sunday of May. The idea was first proposed at a bishops’ meeting after the Winter War, and Marshal Mannerheim ordered that Remembrance Day replace the Defence Forces flag day to commemorate the heroes who fell in the Winter War and the Civil War of 1918 “on both sides, who gave their lives for their convictions – a common religious commemoration”.
