The Embassy of Finland in Canberra was temporarily closed on Tuesday, 10 November, triggering an unexpected global reaction. Millions of people around the world were quite upset about the closure, and the next day the embassy reopened its doors with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
It all stemmed from an innocuous Instagram post about a staff training day. The @FinlandInAustralia post on Monday read: 'The embassy of Finland in Canberra will be temporarily closed on Tuesday, 10 November 2026. Regular hours will resume on Wednesday, 11 November.' The post featured text overlaid on a video of the northern lights glowing an eerie green. While other Instagram videos from the embassy had been receiving likes in the tens or low hundreds last week, this post about working hours was liked 622,000 times, shared 405,000 times and viewed by up to 10 million people worldwide.
The embassy racked up millions of views on its videos and sparked memes seen by millions. Arto Haapea, the Finnish ambassador to Australia, told Guardian Australia: 'We were all having a nice planning day, then someone said oh my goodness it's gone completely viral.' The Embassy of Finland is located in Yarralumli in Canberra, in a diplomatic zone near the parliament building, surrounded by the embassies of Estonia, Singapore, Mexico and Samoa. The embassy building has grey panels and glass.
Haapea had promoted a competition to bring singles from around the world to Helsinki for a 'Finnish Dinner Date'. The video about the dinner date 'went a bit viral', according to Haapea, receiving 8 million views and 163,000 likes. 'We were quite surprised by that', Haapea said. His team did not have time to conduct a deeper analysis of why those two clips unexpectedly went viral, and Haapea theorised that the working hours post 'happened to ride on the same algorithm' as the dinner date.
The post attracted influencers, companies and brands worldwide to film their own videos. @j.ackdale posted: 'POV you're trying to enter the Embassy of Finland in Canberra but it's 10th of November,' accompanied by knocking on locked doors, and that post has 604,000 likes on Instagram. @sand_and_heels from Oman posted: 'Me, all the way from Muscat, trying to get answers about the Finnish embassy in Canberra.' Finnish pilot @juusojelmer posted: 'I'm flying over 300 people from Finland to Australia. Hopefully the Embassy of Finland in Canberra is open today,' with 88,000 likes. Finnish politicians and ambassadors around the world posted their own jokes, called colleagues or reassured Finns in various countries that their embassies remained open.
Haapea said that even the Finnish foreign minister wanted to talk. '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', Haapea said. They filmed a video together, with Haapea fresh from the sauna, promising that the embassy's normal functions would resume the next day. On Wednesday, Canberrans, from politicians to radio hosts and journalists, visited the embassy. Visitors filmed their own social media clips live from the scene, and ordinary people tried to knock on the doors or talk to Finnish staff.
Haapea said that a casual video with a grand reopening, including a ribbon-cutting ceremony, had to follow. The embassy posted: 'We thank the international community for your fascinating interest.' Haapea said he was still unsure why there was such interest. 'I think people are just looking for good news, to take their minds off all the craziness in the world. With the algorithm, and people who are good at making memes, all it took was a few big influencers to make a meme about it', he concluded.
