The Pyhäjoki (literally: "sacred river") is a river in

Northern Ostrobothnia North Ostrobothnia ( fi, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa; sv, Norra Österbotten) is a region of Finland. It borders the Finnish regions of Lapland, Kainuu, North Savo, Central Finland and Central Ostrobothnia, as well as the Russian Republic of Karelia. T ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. It is long and the town of

Pyhäjoki Pyhäjoki (; literally the " Holy River") is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the defunct province of Oulu, which was split in two regions; Pyhäjoki is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. It is located southwest of the city of O ...

is located where it empties into the

Gulf of Bothnia The Gulf of Bothnia (; fi, Pohjanlahti; sv, Bottniska viken) is divided into the Bothnian Bay and Bothnian Sea, and it is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea, between Finland's west coast ( East Bothnia) and the Sweden's east coast (West ...

on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. The river originates in Lake Pyhäjärvi and flows generally north-northwest through the Pyhäjokilaakso basin, a lightly settled region in southwest Northern Ostrobothnia. Towns along its course are

Kärsämäki Kärsämäki (; literally meaning "snout hill") is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Oulu and is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water ...

Haapavesi Haapavesi is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is located in the North Ostrobothnia region. The name means "Aspen Water". The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbour mun ...

and

Oulainen Oulainen ( sv, Oulainen, also ) is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Northern Ostrobothnia region, south of the city of Oulu. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The populat ...

. It empties into the Gulf of Bothnia at the town of Pyhäjoki, dividing into two branches shortly beforehand. The

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

of the Pyhajöki is variously described as and ;"Пюхя-Йоки (Pyhäjoki)"
''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

'', 3rd ed. 1969–1978 its mean

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

is approximately . The river has rapids and is used for rafting. Timber was formerly rafted down it, but like the other short rivers in the region, it could not support a major sawmill industry at its mouth. In 1979 the river still had a

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

run, but numbers declined and in 1993 the river was included in a salmon action plan (SAP) under which fry were introduced from the

Torne The Torne, also known as the Tornio ( fi, Tornionjoki, sv, Torne älv, , se, Duortneseatnu, fit, Tornionväylä), is a river in northern Sweden and Finland. For approximately half of its length, it defines the border between these two countr ...

. The element ''pyhä-'', meaning "sacred", in the name of the river and of the lake where it originates, stems from

Finnish paganism Finnish paganism is the indigenous pagan religion in Finland and Karelia prior to Christianisation. It was a polytheistic religion, worshipping a number of different deities. The principal god was the god of thunder and the sky, Ukko; other i ...

.John Martin Crawford, "Preface", ''The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland'', 2 vols. New York: Alden, 1888, , Volume 1
p. xvii

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