In 2016, the Finnish government made 1 October an official flag flying day in honour of Sillanpää.

[2] Sillanpää was born in Jokioinen, during the famine years, to peasants Juho and Leena (née Roth) Riktig, who had nine children.

At the age of 18 she moved to Porvoo to work as a maid and changed her name from Vilhelmiina Riktig to Miina Sillanpää.

[1] From 1900 to 1915, she worked as caretaker of the Helsinki Household Workers' Association's Servants' Home and Employment Agency.

Miina Sillanpää did not participate in the civil war of 1918; together with Väinö Tanner and Matti Paasivuori she opposed both the Red and White Guards and urged for peace in Finland.