Aurora Society was a secret society

Secret society

A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...

 and a national Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 literary society based around The Royal Academy of Turku

The Royal Academy of Turku

The Royal Academy of Turku was the first university in Finland, and the only university in present-day Finland to be founded when it was still a part of Sweden. In 1809, after Finland became a Grand Duchy under the suzerainty of the Russian Tzar, it was renamed the Imperial Academy of Turku...

 (Sw. Kungliga Akademien i Åbo) 1770-1779. The Society consisted of many prominent members from the Finnish cultural sphere
and had as its focal points poetry, Finnish history, geography and the research of language and economy.

The Society published Finland's first newspaper, Åbo Tidningar (Tidningar Utgifne Af et Sällskap i Åbo), between the years 1771-1778 and 1782-1785.

Furthermore, the first public orchestra concerts in Finland were also organized by the Aurora Society.

The society was a typical product of the Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

 period: a secret society on one hand and a cultural and educational organization on the other. http://www.fimic.fi/fimic/fimic.nsf/mainframe?readform&B3DDE16ED09DFD88C22567F40043EAE9

Members

• Henrik Gabriel Porthan
  Henrik Gabriel Porthan
  Henrik Gabriel Porthan was a scholar sometimes known as The Father of Finnish History. He was a student of Daniel Juslenius and a Fennophile. He brought Finnish history-writing, study of mythology and folk poetry, and other humanistic sciences to an international level...
  
  
• Johan Lilius
  Lilius
  Lilius is a surname and may refer to:* Lilius family* Aloysius Lilius, principal author of the Gregorian Calendar** Lilius , named after him* Franciszek Lilius Lilius is a surname and may refer to:* Lilius family* Aloysius Lilius,(c. 1510 – 1576) principal author of the Gregorian Calendar** Lilius...
  
  
• Abraham Niklas Edelcrantz
• Matthias Calonius
  Matthias Calonius
  Matthias Calonius was Finland's most renowned jurist.Born in Saarijärvi as a pastor's son, he studied at the Royal Academy of Turku. He went on to become a lecturer and then full professor at the Faculty of Law there, despite being too poor and lacking in family connections to ever obtain an...
  
  
• Carl Fredrik Fredenheim
• Magnus Jacob Alopaeus

Sources

• Media moves,thisisFINLAND
• Musical life in Finland in the 17th and 18th centuries, http://www.fimic.fi/fimic/fimic.nsf/mainframe?readform&B3DDE16ED09DFD88C22567F40043EAE9
• Henrik Gabriel Porthan, http://www.finnica.fi/centralfinland/whatislike/porthanesittely.htm
• http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora-seura
• Article in kansallisbiografia
  Kansallisbiografia
  Suomen Kansallisbiografia is a collection of 6,000 biographies of individuals and families who have made important contributions to the development of Finnish society.- From the time of the Swedish era :Adlercreutz, ,Aeimelaeus,...
  
  , http://artikkelihaku.kansallisbiografia.fi/artikkeli/2599/
• A concise history of Finland By D. G. Kirby, http://books.google.com/
• A History of Finland's Literature By George C. Schoolfield, http://books.google.com/