Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs said the emoji will illustrate "Finnish emotions" and also be a part of the yearly Christmas calendar published by the agency. The emoji will also be visible via ThisIsFinland, the country's official website.
The calendar will be available in 13 languages, including English, Japanese and Korean.
The emoji will be rolled out a few at a time through Dec. 1.
Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat's survey of readers giving their opinion of the emoji set revealed 73 percent found the set "successful," while 27 percent did not. The BBC reported one person found the heavy metal icon "cheesy", while another said people relax in saunas in many other countries.
Director of Public Diplomacy Petra Therman told the BBC the emoji were drawn with "a tongue-in-cheek approach" but aimed at promoting a unique Finnish culture.
The emoji set was designed by Bruno Leo Ribeiro of the Hasan & Partners marketing firm.
Meanwhile, an American company has developed a full QWERTY keyboard that also cranks out emoji.
Three editions of the EmojiWorks Keyboard are available: the standard edition has 47 emoji, a Plus version has 94 and a Pro version has 120.
All versions are available for pre-order via EmojiWorks' website, priced from $90 to $110.
The company says on its website, "The keys on the Emoji Keyboard reflect the vast range of emotional experiences you have."
The keyboard looks like Apple's wireless keyboard, with the exception of colorful emojis printed on several keys. An additional skin tone modifier also makes the keyboard compatible with diversity improvements made by Apple in February.
The keyboard is supported by Apple's MacOS, Microsoft Windows and Apple's iOS by way of Bluetooth.
