3. From youth to pensioners

The very first Culture Days were a success. Culture Days established its position within the deaf community and was subsequently organised every other year, hosted by different deaf clubs in various cities and towns.

At the 1958 Culture Days held in Turku, the competition programme was extended to include watercolour painting, photography and drama plays. The Turku event attracted lots of people and the number of competitors doubled to 84. The numbers remained similar all the way to late 1960s, when the number eventually broke 100 competitors.

At the second Culture Days, the Culture Days Committee handed out the Soihtupokaali challenge trophy. The first club to receive the trophy was the organiser, Turku Deaf Club. Competitions between different clubs were later stopped.

The first eight Culture Days were specifically events for young people. However, the age of the average participant started to climb while enthusiasm remained high. In 1973, the age limits were removed and several competitions were divided into separate open and youth series. At the same time, the event name was changed from Youth Culture Days to National Deaf Culture Days.

For a long time now, Culture Day participants have ranged from young children to pensioners. The idea of pensioners having their own cultural event was presented at the Tampere and Jyväskylä pensioners' gathering in 1980 and the event was organised as soon as the following year. Today, the event, known since 2006 as Seniors' Cultural Event, is organised every other year and it takes turns with the national Deaf Culture Days.

Over the years, the Culture Days became increasingly popular. The organisers of the 1982 Culture Days in Kouvola were surprised as 420 competitors signed up for the various competitions. The reserved venue proved to be too small and the two-day event was too short to complete all of the programme. The competitor numbers peaked at the 1986 event in Oulu where as many as 514 competitors took to the stage. There were approximately 800 participants at the 2016 Culture Days held in Mikkeli.

Culture Days have also emphasised the cultural tradition of deaf children. Adults are responsible for cherishing the children's sign language culture and heritage in order to give deaf children a strong identity that eventually leads to a balanced and happy adulthood. Once the cooperation began between the cultural department of the Finnish Association of the Deaf and the teachers in schools for children with hearing impairment, children were also allowed to participate in the competitions. 2008 saw a significant change as hearing sign language users were allowed to enter all the competition series. This ensured equality between everyone using sign language as their native language or their first language.