Week 15 - Cultural

This week in Finland has marked the beginning of Vappu. Vappu occurs over May Day bank holiday and it is a big celebration in Finland. Originally it was celebrated as international Labour Day in Finland and it has transpired into a week of celebrations throughout Finland. Generally, Vappu is celebrated on the eve of Vappu which was a Saturday this year. The whole week, all the bars and clubs held free concerts and drinks promotions for people who wanted to celebrate the Vappu celebrations early. Even during the day there was music and bands playing in the kauppatori (market square) to lift people’s spirits. The weather was great all week too which helped also. On Saturday, is it traditional for people to have a picnic, and drink silmaa which is a fruit flavoured traditional Finnish drink (non-alcoholic). Throughout the week we would see people wearing different costumes and colourful wigs to celebrate Vappu. On Saturday, it is traditional for all the students to gather together and clean one of the statues in the kauppatori with a giant toothbrush. This is like a game because the statue moves locations every year and the students must find it. Also, during the evening on Saturday, at 6pm all of Turku gathers together to put on the special graduation caps (that you can only get once you graduate from high school in Finland). The mayor of Turku gave a speech at the top of the hill in the kauppatori, and afterwards everyone put on their graduation caps. I had never seen so many people in Turku and the streets were filled with people who were celebrating and drinking champagne. Compared with home, this is very unusual because we don’t have a celebration like this for May Day bank holiday. Here in Turku, the entire city comes together in celebration and I feel that this is something special to witness. Everyone is happy and celebrating. After this occasion, the celebrations continued late into the night where the people went to the bars or clubs, to continue celebrating Vappu, and almost every bar had some kind of concert and promotions on inside. I am glad that I was able to witness this celebration in Finland, as I have never had a celebration like this in Northern Ireland, and it was good to see the Finnish people in a different light, rather than just as serious, almost robotic people.