Itä-Häme

For the newspaper, see Itä-Häme (newspaper).

Itä-Häme (lit. 'East Tavastia') is the eastern part of the historical province Tavastia in Finland. It is in Päijänne Tavastia, Southern Savonia and Central Finland.

Itä-Häme coloured dark red with Tavastia highlighted lighter. The modern regional borders are in grey.

Leivonmäki National Park is in Itä-Häme.

Itä-Häme is also known by manufacturing of sahti.

Municipalities

• Hartola
• Heinola (town)
• Joutsa
• Luhanka
• Pertunmaa
• Sysmä

Disestablished

• Heinolan maalaiskunta (merged into Heinola in 1997)
• Leivonmäki (merged into Joutsa in 2008)

Dialects

Despite being a part of Tavastia, only the dialect of Heinola is a Tavastian dialect. The dialects of the other municipalities are Savonian dialects of the Päijänne subgroup, a group of Savonian dialects with Tavastian influence; for example, they lack the type of consonant gemination found in most other Savonian dialects (e.g. the partitive form of kala "fish" is kaloa, not kalloa/kalloo).

Most of the area may have adopted a Savonian dialect due to the Cudgel War, in which many of the original Tavastian inhabitants of the area were killed, allowing Savonians to settle in the area. Despite this, the people of the area still see themselves as Tavastians.