May 1st - "May" Day - Vappu!

The Finnish celebration of May 1st has so far been one of my most favorite Spring parties.  On this day the city streets are closed to traffic as practically everyone in Helsinki comes out to play.  The celebration begins at the Havis Amanda statue by the pier, where students put a graduation cap on this bronze beauty and wash her down.  The year we were there, a couple of hard core partyers were also swimming around in the fountain that surrounds her.  Everyone wears their graduation cap for the day (they looked more like sailor's caps to me), and some were quite yellowed with age.  There really isn't any organized agenda after that, just a lot of meandering through the streets with friends and booze - LOTS of booze.  I think it was the only day I ever really saw Helsinki as a whole completely unreserved and noisy as hell.   Everyone is smiling in anticipation of the warmer weather and longer daylight hours.  You can finally put away your happy lamps for a couple of months and get some real sunshine into your eyeballs.   Its no wonder is one of the biggest celebrations of the year.  The following day families are camped out on every piece of green landscape available for the first picnic of the season.  The place looks totally trashed by the end of day 2 and you find yourself wondering how a whole country of people known for their reserved nature and pride of clean and pristine land only exhibit this behaviour one day a year?  Its like 11 months of pressure cooking for this one big bang.  But drive down the streets on May 3 and everything is back to normal.  The rubbish is all cleaned up, the empty bottles have all been recycled and an unusual quiet has returned...that is of course, only until June 21st, my second most favorite time in Finland...Juhannus!

Happy "MAY" Day everyone!!!