This is another true Finnish booze fest, the first of the year really after New Year’s. The closest equivalent to it in English is Labour Day, as it is the day for university students and workers, and, historically, marches and demonstrations. It also marks the arrival of spring, and after such a cold dark period you certainly need an excuse to drink yourself silly, and to clean and decorate statues with the student cap… Colourful balloons and streamers are thrown about, and sima (a non-alcoholic mead-like drink) and munkit (doughnuts) are staple foods for the festivities. So are sausages and potato salad, perhaps to line the stomach.
Vappu has been celebrated in Finland since 1890 and is a public holiday. Celebrations start on the eve of 1st May with lots of drinking, and on the actual day most parties take place in the streets like a carnival, and around the afore-mentioned statues (of anyone, and anything!) where people gather and eat and drink, and usually drink till they literally drop. If anyone is still standing, you then move on to homes and restaurants/bars for more drinking. Students will don their university department’s colourful overalls, and the cap is super-important. If you have graduated from high school, you will have one. There are plenty of traditions but most of them are all built around drinking, funnily enough. There’s also all the political parties and their designated places for get-togethers, or something like that, don’t ask me – the most a-political person outside
Finland…
I was never a great fan of Vappu and all its mess. The day after the chaos and mess of Vappu is always very, well, messy! Just you wait till the next booze fest that is midsummer, known to us dearly as Juhannus…!! Here in Auckland the celebrations for us are usually very subdued compared to back home, and that’s a good think in my opinion. All in moderation, I say! Happy Vappu everyone. 
