Vappu Päivä

Sunday, May 1, was Vappu Päivä, a celebration of spring and workers's day. People wear their graduation hats, there are parades and union and political workers give speeches. May Day celebrations begin on May Day eve. The celebrations take on a carnival like atmosphere which is unusual for the normally quiet and reserved Finns . May Day markets are full of knick-knacks, serpentines, flowers, whistles, May Day whisks, balloons and masks for children and childlike adults. Judging from the shopping carts and packages people were carryingon the street, sparkling wines and beer are an essential element to the celebration. The next day people head for parks to have picnics together with friends and family and brunches served in restaurants are also popular meeting points. Traditional May Day delicacies are fritters called "tippaleipä" and they are served together with homemade mead, "sima", and doughnuts, or munkkia. The entire televised news last night showed Vappu celebrations, parades, and speeches by various union and political leaders mentioned above. In the west the skies were blue and the celebrations grand. Here in the east, the weather was cloudy, rainy, windy, and snowy. There was about an inch on the ground Sunday morning. The law is that you have to remove your studded tires by May 1. We had a nice celebration in our church. Everyone wore silly hats. Of course, ours were bigger and more flamboyant than the others. It is, after all, the American way. I baked chocolate chip blond brownies for the party. For some reason we call them congo squares. I didn't expect the people to like them because they don't seem to eat a lot of chocolate or gooey things. But they were very popular. We passed by a small parade of what appeared to be students, perhaps 75 of them. No one was on the street to watch the parade as the weather was dreadful. But they all mugged for our camera and seemed eager to have their pictures taken. The tori had a stage set up and there were a few kiosks but it was pretty low key here in Joensuu. We didn't go out to the tori during late hours so perhaps it was livelier for the young.

An additional note--it is a flag flying day in Finland. The Finnish flag is a blue cross on a white background. It is really quite beautiful and perfect for the land of mega-blue skies. Sunday morning when I looked out our window there were two flags flying on poles across the street. And they were unfurled in different directions. Amazing. Think it has something to do with us being so far north?