It's been 33 years but Vappu is here and finally I get to wear my hat! If you're not from Finland you're probably very confused asking what the heck Vappu is and what does it have to do with hats?
The name Vappu comes from a saint: St Valburg's day was celebrated on May 1st since the middle ages. Already in the late 1800s Vappu started becoming a student celebration. Vappu student celebration later merged with Labor Day. Interestingly enough (per Wikipedia) the origins for this being Labor Day are American. In 1886 on May 1st there was a widespread 3 day strike in the US to obtain an 8 hour workday. Protests ensued and police and protesters clashed resulting in a few people dying in the "Haymarket Massacre". Four organizers of the protests were condemmed to death. Later in 1889 an international group of social democrats gathered in Paris and decided May 1st should be an international day of worker protests in honor of the "Haymarket Martyrs". Vappu Eve is celebrated on 4/30 and Vappu Day is 5/1. Vappu Eve is typically a shorter work day for all as everyone is in festive spirits. Our elementary school kids had a pyjama day at school and got to eat sausages, chicken nuggets and donuts at lunch (i.e. an unhealthy party lunch compared to the norm). Vappu Day would be a work holiday except this year it falls on a Saturday. May 1st is celebrated as a spring, worker and/or a student celebration in many places around the world but in Finland it is truly used as an excuse for a party - the biggest party of the year - and nowadays it has a carnival vibe versus a day of labor union marches and political speeches of yesteryear. Vappu, like many of the big holidays in Finland has numerous traditions. The most visible one is the "ylioppilaslakki" i.e. the white graduation cap. My husband thinks they look like sailor hats... oh well maybe they do but the white caps are a loved tradition that isn't going away anytime soon: These have been worn for a century and a half! Per Wikipedia, the white hat design was copied from a Swedish University and the first hats in Finland were commissioned by university students in 1865. Until 1917 the high school matriculation exams (the big high school exit exams that still exist) were effectively the entrance exams to the Helsinki University so wearing the hat signified that you're a University student. Up to the 50s, high school graduates would proudly wear the hat the whole summer. Nowadays it is worn only on the day you graduate from high school, each Vappu and some academic events.
By the way, even nowadays, not all kids go to high school in Finland. High schools are considered mostly as university prep. About half the kids after grade 9 (age 15) take the high school path while others take more of a trade school path. So not everyone has a white cap. Then depending on which University you go to and what you study, the hat may get embellished with tassles or the decorative gold pin, typically a lyra a symbol of the Helsinki University, gets replaced with another that has specific meaning to the student body you belong to. Even the inner lining of the hat may have meaning although many are just blue and white, the colors of the Finnish flag.
On top of their unique versions of the hat, the different student bodies also have their own color overalls they wear to all the crazy University social events and parties. Kind of a practical tradition thinking of how wild (and possibly cold... you could wear all kinds of layers under that thing) the student parties can get. Of course Vappu also has its traditional food and the drink. Champagne or other variant of a sparkling wine is a must. It is actually a great metaphor for the whole holiday. Finns tend to be somewhat quiet and reserved. They are like the champagne bubbles kept in check as long as the cork is closed. Once Vappu comes and the cork is popped, excuberant Finns get unleashed like the champagne spraying all over the floor. Everyone who has one dons the white high school graduation cap and heads out to celebrate, most likely in some way involving additional alcohol after the champagne.
For kids and non-drinkers, there is also "sima" which is basically home-made brown sugar based lemonade with carbonation from yeast. You bottle the sima with raisins that pop to the top of the bottle after the yeast has done its trick - that is how you know the sima is ready. Then you have "munkki", what Americans would call "old-fashioned" donuts, and "tippaleipä" which are effectively hardened funnel cake.
Some of the other Vappu traditions involve decorations of colorful streamers and balloons. Kids walk around with little wind pinwheels or pompoms. When I was little the Vappu highlight in our town was the travelling amusement park and also that my mom would sometimes buy me then rare helium balloon. In fact, oddly one of my strongest negative childhood memories is related to Vappu balloons. My mom "splurged" and bought me one. I then made the mistake of letting a friend borrow the precious toy. She kept pretending to let go of the balloon to tease me... until she accidentally actually did. I can still taste the tears of disappointment and to this day hate people playing pranks like that on each other.
Anyway, back to happier Vappu stories. The big Vappu tradition in Helsinki involves a famous statue of Havis Amanda also known as "Manta" that sits between the Helsinki Market Place and the Esplanade Park downtown Helsinki. Different student groups have the honor of "capping" Manta every year and they do it in different ways, using cranes etc to help with the task. It normally happens at 6pm on Vappu Eve, with thousands of people in attendance, and is preceded by the students scrubbing the statue clean. This year, people have been asked to avoid downtown for Vappu because of Covid and Manta was capped ahead of time. Now she sits lonely surrounded by a guarded fence; apparently few die hards managed to jump the fence even this year and went for a quick splash in Manta's water fountain only to get chased away by the guard.
In Helsinki, Vappu Eve is (in a normal year) a raucous, drink infused street party for the young. The next day, Vappu Day, is a bit more family friendly and often involves a picnic. In Helsinki thousands cram into downtown parks such as Kaivopuisto. The talked-about tradition is to have a herring, potatoes and vodka breakfast, a bit of "hair of the dog" if you will. I wouldn't really know if this is fact or fiction though... I left Finland after graduating from high school so I've never gotten to experience an "adult Vappu" wearing my high school graduation hat! In fact my white cap is embarrassingly clean and white which makes me look like a brand new grad. It is missing the proud patina that years of partying hard would have lent it... I guess I better hurry up with the partying this year and make up for the lost years!