What is the story behind the word "Perkele!" ?
I know I can search on the internet, but this thread is about learning things on finland no? 
Perkele is a common curse word, but it can also mean a god.
As a god:Perkele also known as Perkunas(in the baltic area+germany) is the god of thunder. Don't mess him with thor. It's an old pagan god. Finns used more(and still do) the name "Ukko Ylijumala" for Perkele(we Finns like to give our own names to everything), but Perkele was also used.
As a curse word:One of the most common Finnish curse words, mainly meaning "Devil" but probably easiest to translate to "God damnit / damnit". When Christianity took over the old pagan religions, people started to use the word perkele as a devil (however in Finnish, Devil=Paholainen). This is because even though it was a still a god, it was a false good according to Christianity (because in Christianity you have only one god, and all the other gods are devils).
Perkele is used more as a curse word. A lot of Finns don't even know that Perkele is actually Ukko Ylijumala.
