1 May 2013 Happy Vappu! May the Day to be
with You!
From Swedish term, May Day is known as Vappu. It is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring/summer festival,
usually a public holiday among European countries, and Finnish has its very
special traditions: devouring tippaleivät and sima, (no matter young or elderly)
wearing student caps, carrying colourful balloons and picnicking at parks under
lovely sun.
Tippaleivät translated as May Day cookies, but the shape is more like a spiral-ball doughnut; sima is made from yeast, brown sugar and lemonade, which contains a slightly amount of alcohol, so even children can drink some at Vappu. Those can be either made at home or bought at supermarket. My cute mate and I replace tippaleivät to salted tortilla chips, along with 2 cans of Finnish beer, 1 liter sima and 500 ml. apple cider as snack treats, and then we step out to watch Finnish eat, drink and play.
The earliest May Day celebration appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. Though the air is still a bit too chilly for the blossom in Helsinki, while various balloons, colourful paper streams, sweet candy bars, park food stalls, fashionable trends decorate cheerfully even yellow-brown grasslands. The crispy light-blue sky contrasts with countless student white caps, vintage or brand-new, spicing up the first day of May.
Special Thanks: JMH
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