Fans celebrate the 80th birthday of the Moomins, Finland's most lovable literary cartoon family

TAMPERE, Finland (AP) — The Moomins, Finland's most lovable literary cartoon family, are celebrating their 80th birthday this year.

The chubby, white, hippopotamus-like characters have captivated readers worldwide since author and illustrator Tove Jansson published “The Moomins and the Great Flood” in 1945. The children's book features Moomintroll and Moominmamma in their search for the missing Moominpappa.

Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn who died in 2001, went on to write eight more books, multiple picture books and a comic strip about the Moomins in Swedish.

The series, set in the fictional Moominvalley, has been translated into more than 60 languages, and sparked movie and TV adaptations, children's plays, art gallery exhibitions and an eponymous museum — plus theme parks in Finland and Japan. Finnair, the national carrier, has even put Moomins on its airplanes.

On Saturday, fans flocked to Tampere in southern Finland — home of the Moomin Museum — to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the 1945 publication as well as Jansson's Aug. 9, 1914, birthday.

For Rosa Senn of the United Kingdom, the festivities reminded her of her childhood. Her Norwegian mother, a fan since her own youth, read all of the tales to Senn and her sister growing up.

“Moomins have been such a special thing in my life, my whole life," Senn said. "I just carried that love for Moomin, for Tove Jansson, with me into my adult life.”

When Senn met her now-wife, Lizzie, they were initially in a long-distance relationship for the first year and a half. Senn introduced Lizzie to the books and the couple used a plush doll of Moomintroll to feel closer to each other while they were apart. The doll was the ringbearer at their wedding, and they traveled to Tampere on their honeymoon.

The Senns also made an Instagram page documenting the trio's adventures, which now has nearly 11,000 followers. The social media account has connected them with Moomin fans all over the world, including Stefanie and Michael Geutebrück from Germany.

Stefanie Geutebrück said she remembers falling in love with the Moomins while watching their animations during her childhood in East Germany. She also brought the Moomins into her husband's life, to the point where they also traveled to Tampere for Saturday's entertainment.

"Now he’s a total fan and our apartment looks like a Moomin shop,” she said.

Beyond the Geutebrücks' home, Moomin merchandise is hugely popular. There's a massive market for Moomintroll, Moominmamma and Moominpappa souvenirs across the globe, and secondary characters like their friends Stinky, Sniff, Snufkin, Snork Maiden and Hattifatteners are also well-loved.

“The Moomin mug is one of the best-known collector items worldwide,” Selma Green, director of the Moomin Museum, said. “You buy a Moomin mug, you like the characters, you maybe see something on TV — but we all go back to the books, the original illustrations.”

Depictions of the character Stinky, described as a lovable rogue who has captured Moominmamma’s heart, generated debate and outcry in Finland this summer after reports emerged in Finnish media that Stinky was removed from a mural in an exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York due to concerns that the cartoon might be perceived as racist.

“A single image of Stinky was removed from the youth wing — which had the potential to be negatively misconstrued by young children without a fuller understanding of the Moomin universe,” the library said Monday in a statement to The Associated Press. "However, Stinky does appear in other areas of the exhibition and the Moomins books remain available for patrons to check out as they always have.”

Jansson's drawings of Stinky shows the character with a dark, fuzzy body, with skinny legs and antennae. He has a reputation as an unsuccessful criminal — whose plans get foiled or he gets caught in the act — with an appetite for furniture and other wooden things.

“To me, this became as quite a big surprise because I have more thought about Stinky being close to a mole or a vole," Sirke Happonen, a Moomins scholar and associate professor at the University of Helsinki, said of the library's decision. "He’s an interesting character in many ways, like controversial and fun.”

The Moomin stories honor the idea of family as a flexible concept. Diverse gender roles and queer themes also come across in Moominvalley, as well as in Jansson's other works, reflecting her LGBTQ+ identity.

Her partner of more than 45 years, engraver and artist Tuulikki Pietilä, was memorialized as the character Too-ticky in “Moominland Midwinter.” The couple lived in Helsinki and spent their summers on the small rocky island of Klovharu in the Gulf of Finland until the 1990s.

Jansson's stories also reflect war and catastrophe. The first book, “The Moomins and the Great Flood,” features the displaced Moomin family and was published in the final months of World War II. The conflict had ruined Finland, even though it had remained independent, and one of the author's brothers went missing during part of his time at the front.

While Jansson sought to portray Moominvalley as an escape, Moomin stories have always had a mixture of peril and comfort.

“Her first Moomin book came out in a dark era. She felt it was very difficult to paint, and she started writing what she called a fairy tale, but she excused herself not to include princesses or princes,” Happonen said.

Moominvalley was borne of a need to find beauty at a time when Jansson's existence, along with everyone else in Finland, felt frail.

“I think she wanted to make a contrast — Tove Jansson loved contrasts — by writing about this beautiful world, full of friendship and love,” Happonen said.

Dazio reported from Berlin.

Finland Moomins Fans celebrate the 80th anniversary of the publication of the Finnish children's classic, "The Moomins and The Great Flood," and the birthday of the author Tove Jansson, in Tampere, Finland, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Tommi Ojala)

Finland Moomins Fans celebrate the 80th anniversary of the publication of the Finnish children's classic, "The Moomins and The Great Flood," and the birthday of the author Tove Jansson, in Tampere, Finland, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Tommi Ojala)

Finland Moomins Fans celebrate the 80th anniversary of the publication of the Finnish children's classic, "The Moomins and The Great Flood," and the birthday of the author Tove Jansson, in Tampere, Finland, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Tommi Ojala)

Finland Moomins Fans celebrate the 80th anniversary of the publication of the Finnish children's classic, "The Moomins and The Great Flood," and the birthday of the author Tove Jansson, in Tampere, Finland, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Tommi Ojala)

Finland Moomins Fans celebrate the 80th anniversary of the publication of the Finnish children's classic, "The Moomins and The Great Flood," and the birthday of the author Tove Jansson, in Tampere, Finland, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Tommi Ojala)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is flirting with a record on Tuesday, as stocks zigzag under the market's surface following mixed profit reports from UnitedHealth, General Motors and other big companies.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and could top its all-time high set a couple weeks ago, even though more stocks fell within the index than rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 483 points, or 1%, as of 12:57 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.

UnitedHealth Group tumbled 19.8% despite reporting a profit for the latest quarter that was a bit better than analysts expected. More attention was on the company’s forecast for revenue in the upcoming year, which fell short of Wall Street’s expectations and could be weaker than it was in 2025.

It and other health care companies also felt tremendous pressure from a projected rate increase for Medicare Advantage by the U.S. government, which fell well short of what investors had hoped. Humana skidded by 20.4%, Elevance Health dropped 13% and CVS Health sank 13.5%.

Helping to keep the market in check was Corning, which climbed 16.8% after announcing a deal with Meta Platforms that's worth up to $6 billion. Corning will supply optical fiber and cable to help build out data centers for Meta, enough that Corning is expanding its optical-fiber manufacturing facility in Hickory, North Carolina.

Also supporting the U.S. stock market were gains for General Motors, which rose 8.5%, and hospital-operator HCA Healthcare, which rallied 7.8%. Both delivered profits for the end of 2025 that topped Wall Street’s expectations. Each also approved programs to send billions of dollars to their investors by buying back their own stock.

Profit reports elsewhere on Wall Street were mixed. UPS, which moves packages around the global economy, rose 3.4% after reporting a stronger profit and forecasting better revenue for 2026 than analysts expected. UPS also said it would cut another 30,000 jobs as it continues a turnaround effort.

American Airlines lost 5% after delivering a profit for the end of 2025 that fell well short of analysts' expectations, in part because the U.S. government shutdown's siphoned away some revenue.

The pressure is on companies to deliver strong growth in profits following the record-setting runs for their stock prices. Stock prices tend to follow corporate profits over the long term, and earnings need to rise to quiet criticism that stock prices have grown too expensive.

Several of Wall Street’s most influential stocks will deliver their latest earnings reports later this week. They include Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Tesla on Wednesday and Apple on Thursday.

Several of those Big Tech stocks were among the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 Tuesday, including gains of 2.1% for Apple and 2.2% for Microsoft.

Another way stock prices can look less expensive to investors is if interest rates fall. The Federal Reserve will announce its next move on interest rates Wednesday, but the widespread expectation is that it will hold its main interest rate steady for now.

Inflation remains stubbornly above the Fed's 2% target, and lower interest rates could worsen increases in prices for U.S. consumers at the same time that they give the economy a boost. Traders expect the Fed to resume its cuts to interest rates later this year.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were relatively steady ahead of the Fed's decision. The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.22%, where it was late Monday.

It had edged lower earlier, after a report from the Conference Board said confidence among U.S. consumers weakened last month. Economists had expected to see a slight improvement, but confidence dropped to its lowest level since 2014, even lower than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

India’s Sensex index added 0.4% after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had reached agreement on a free trade deal with the European Union.

The accord, which touches 2 billion people, followed nearly two decades of negotiations. It’s one of the biggest bilateral engagements on commerce. The timing comes as Washington targets both India and the EU with steep import tariffs.

South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.7%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 1.4% for two of the world's bigger moves.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Traders Robert Finnerty Jr., foreground, and Michael Milano work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist Meric Greenbaum works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist Michael Pistillo works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders pass by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A board above the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)