We here in Finland start celebrating the first of May the night before. In history it was the festival of workers and students, so that's why it is a day off from work and school.Young ones usually hang around the center of our capital, Helsinki. Adults have their own private parties at home with their friends. Restaurants are also crowded with people.
People have lots of all kinds of serpentine and balloons, adults also have champagne.For children we have home-made "mead" with raisins,and it tastes really good, and we can eat doughnut with it.
Early in the morning on the first of May, families go to Helsinki to a place where you can have picnic and meet lots of other hilarious people.There, they also listen to a men's choir singing traditional songs. Then they go to the market place and buy crazy stuff like fake hands and balloons, and around midday restaurants are full of adults and children having "Vappu lunch".
Then Finland is like Rio de Janeiro during
its samba carninals.The streets of the city are full of people, the cars are
prohibited. Everybody is having some kind of joking gear and wearing crazy costumes;
batman-masks, colourful whisks and wigsfor example. At 6 p.m.it is time for the
tradition at Havis Amanda. Every year, this prudent female statue gets washed and
embraced by many university students. The rest of the evening she gets the honor of
wearing a white cap.
Traditional Vappu foods are "sima" or mead and "tippaleipa" or
"fritties". And of course, champagne and sparkling wines belong to this
celebration.
And the Park of Esplanade stays full of partying people until the sun
comes up...
The first of May is for all kinds of political meetings. It's the fact
that thefisrt of May is the laborers' festval;Also, there is a concert in Finlandia
house, which is very amusing. The party is beginning to be finally over, and life
slowly gets back to its old shape...
Mother's day is very funny. Everybody loves Mother's day, even
the mothers. Almost all the children (98%) bring white anemonies to their
mothers.Everybody from age 4-17 (before that age they ate the cake themselves) bakes a
cake to his/her mother and sing songs to her all morning.
It is common knowledge
that feminists punish all those who who don't bake cakes to their mothers!
That day begins. It's like a carnival. We
have serpentines and all kinds of stuff.
In the evening, people usually go to the
Esplanade (a street in Helsinki), especially the young ones.We are usually quite long
there with our friends. It is a tradition that students climb on top of a statue called
Manta (Havis Amanda) and put a cap on her head.