This is an international breaking news story; our analysts here at Celebitchy have been poring over the latest developments and pulled together what we believe to be an accurate timeline of unfolding events: from the beginning of time until last week, the Finnish Embassy in Canberra, Australia operated with relative obscurity. Then to kick off the weekend, the Embassy’s Instagram account launched a “Finnish Dinner Date” contest wherein 16 Aussie singles could apply for an all-expenses-paid trip to Helsinki to find love in the happiest country on earth. All applications had to be in by November 10. On Monday the 9th, the same Insta account announced the Embassy would be closed all day on Tuesday for “an internal planning day…” AND ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE! For reasons still unknown to us at this time, the one-two punch of the contest and subsequent one-day closure posts caused global mass panic. As in, the posts went very viral, to the point where Finland’s foreign minister called the Australian outpost to check in. Thankfully, the Embassy reopened on Wednesday, as they’d originally promised. Those cheeky Finns added an impromptu ribbon-cutting ceremony to herald their longed-for return.
“We were all having a nice planning day, then someone said: ‘Oh my goodness, it’s gone completely viral,’” Arto Haapea, Finland’s ambassador to Australia, told Guardian Australia.
The Finnish embassy, nestled in leafy Yarralumla in Canberra’s diplomatic zone just a stone’s throw from Parliament House, isn’t exactly a tourist hotspot in the nation’s capital. Flanked by the embassies of Estonia, Singapore, Mexico and Samoa, the sleek building – all grey panelling and glass – looks more like a bank or an office block than the genesis of a bizarre social media sensation stretching from Europe and the US to the centre of Australian politics.
“The embassy of Finland in Canberra will be temporarily closed on Tuesday, 10 November 2026. Regular hours will resume on Wednesday, 11 November,” @FinlandInAustralia posted on Monday, with text over video of the northern lights glowing an eerie green.
Last week, the embassy’s other Instagram videos were getting like counts in the dozens or low hundreds. The post about the building’s opening hours has, as of time of writing, been liked 622,000 times, shared 405,000 times, and been seen by up to 10 million people worldwide.
How it got picked up by Instagram’s social media algorithm, and supercharged to be seen across the world, is likely something to do with the embassy’s previous video; Haapea promoting a competition to fly single people from around the world to Helsinki for a “Finnish Dinner Date”. The dinner date video also “went a bit viral”, Haapea said, getting 8m views and 163,000 likes.
“We were quite surprised by that,” the ambassador said.
Haapea said his team hadn’t had time to do any deep analysis of why these two clips went unexpectedly viral, but he theorised that the post with the opening hours “happened to ride on the same algorithm” as the dinner date, getting even more views, and attracting influencers, companies and brands around the world to make their own videos.
…That included Finnish politicians and ambassadors around the world, many of whom posted their own jokes, calling their colleagues or reassuring Finns in various countries that their embassies remained open. Haapea said even Finland’s foreign minister was keen to chat.
“We were done with the planning day and did a sauna with the team, and the foreign minister wanted to call about the planning day,” he said, as they filmed a video together – Haapea fresh from the sauna – promising that normal functions of the embassy would resume the next day.
You guys… Finnish diplomats have GAME! Watch the videos, and the only remaining question is how on earth did those slick Finns not go viral sooner! Starting with the contest announcement, the video is littered with superb lines. From “We have almost 200,000 lakes, world-class javelin throwers and heavy metal bands,” to “We like our coffee and saunas hot and our people and culture cool.” Perhaps the best zinger is: “Your ex would never — but a Finn would.” Da-YUM. But as we all know, an excellent script can crumble under poor delivery. What really makes the suite of videos is Ambassador Haapea’s suave demeanor, his understated rizz. Make him the new Bond! And then the foreign minister dialing in from the motherland is equally smoothe and chill in her cameo! Winns for the Finns, all around. I can’t even be mad that the “internal planning day” turned out to be code for a spa retreat — it just makes me love them more!
Note by CB: Yesterday there were at least two more Instagram reels on the Finland in Australia account announcing the dinner date contest! That’s where I got the images for the FAQ and restaurant date, above. I’m pretty sure they deleted them though! I guess it went too viral.
Love this story. The ambassador was great.
Hahaha – loved the Aussie Ambassador lounging around in his Marimekko robe (a well known Finnish design house).
That part of the world is beautiful in Winter but its also very very cold.
It depends in which part of the country you are in. In Southern Finland, where I live, the winters can mostly be rather mild. I was in Vienna in January and it was colder than in Helsinki! Maybe we should organize a campaign and start knitting wool socks (also known as the Finnish hug) to all Australian singles afraid to come here because of the cold :-D!
I’m from Finland, and we only heard of this once it made international headlines!
On a dreary November day, what a glorious story! 😂
Funny, cool, interesting! While other Embassies would lose their ever-loving minds over this, the Finnish officials demonstrate a wonderful sense of humour and a laid-back attitude that is truly to be applauded. Thank you Finland 🇫🇮 👏👏👏