Browsing by Subject "muumikirjat"

The main purpose of the study is to describe the social context of meal times and food-related routines in the Moomin books. Previous research has looked at what the Moomins are eating, but there are no studies about other dimensions of their eating. The research data was collected from eight Moomin books. One of them was a collection of short stories and the other seven were novels. The data includes all descriptions of meal times found in the books as well as scenes where food was discussed. In order to be included in the data, the scene had to include some member of the central Moomin family: Moominmamma, Moominpappa or Moomintroll. The nature of the study was qualitative and the data was analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Family meals were the most frequently occurring meal type found in the data. During these meals, all of the central Moomin family along with their closest friends came together at the Moomin house to enjoy the company of family and friends and to discuss the news of the day. Another common meal format was having a packed lunch to bring to one of the Moomins' trips. Participating in these trips were usually all of the Moomin family along with friends or only Moomintroll with his friends. Generally, Moominmamma prepared all the meals. The results showed that the Moomin family had routines related to food and meal times. Moominmamma was normally the one responsible for the routines. When these routines were broken, the Moomin family fell into confusion. Fortunately, this did not occur often. The study showed that the family meals and regular routines had a positive influence on the well-being of the Moomin family.