This comic has some interesting cultural context that I got to read about when trying to understand it. “Book Day”, which eventually became “Book Week”, was(is?) a popular yearly event that encouraged people to read more, would feature events to meet authors, created a tradition of exchanging books as gifts, and (because of the era) was also an opportunity for the communist government of the time to influence what people were reading. https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ünnepi_könyvhét

note: it looks like it IS still celebrated. Cool!

So the joke in this comic is that Jucika received a romantic “Book Day” gift, then re-gifted it to the man she was actually interested in.

As always, stay tuned here on !comicstrips@lemmy.world for a slow trickle out of Jucika comics, but if you want to find more, here’s a good post with a large collection that /u/JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social posted last year: https://piefed.social/post/1258520

**Also, check out some Jucika fan art! https://piefed.social/c/eurographicnovels/p/2128207/the-best-of-jucika-fan-art-12-pieces-with-two-videos

  • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
    13·
    10 days ago

    I worked with a Finn and they celebrated book day. Or as he pronounced it, bo-o-o-ok day.

      • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
        4·
        10 days ago

        Finns pronounce every vowel. If there are two of them then get pronounced twice. So Snoopy becomes Sno-o-o-opy and boom becomes bo-o-o-om. Double consonants get a syllable length pause so happy becomes hap_py.

        • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
          1·
          5 days ago

          I wanted to get a decent reference for it, but I’ll just throw it out there since it’s been five fucking days.

          Is that why there is/was a stereotype of Finns/Estonians being slow in the USSR?

          • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
            2·
            5 days ago

            Im not an expert in the area, but I gather it’s just because the Russians consider Finland and Estonia backwaters. I’ll note that Finnish and Estonian are also non-Indo-European languages, they are in the Finno-Ugric family. So my guess is a long ways away with a rustic lifestyle and they speak funny.

  • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialEnglish
    6·
    10 days ago

    So the joke in this comic is that Jucika received a romantic “Book Day” gift, then re-gifted it to the man she was actually interested in.

    Well-summed indeed, and really, a sort of chronic, tragic phenomenon that goes on between the underdog that greatly appreciates the heroine for who she really is, while she has the hots for the more ‘manly’ man. (mix up the genders, delightfully as you will, still the same equation)

    I think across my romantic attempted conquests, I only got scorched once or twice, until I kinda realised some fundamental things… 😅