Hyv�� Juhannusta!! Happy Midsummer!!

Living in Finland is great.  There are a tonne of holidays here that do not get celebrated in North America.
One of these holidays happens to be Midsummer.
It's always placed on a weekend, the Friday being the Eve of Midsummer and everything closes by 12pm on the Friday.  Buses stop running by 1pm and everything is closed on the Saturday.

Last night I got a message from some friends to go check out the huge bonfire that was being lit across the lake - so I packed up one child and went downtown to see.

In order to get closer to the fire you had to pay for a ticket...but we did this last minute - so we didn't bother.

I was told that Midsummer is considered a very magical day.
If you hope to find true love - it's very traditional to pick 7 flowers and place them under your pillow before you fall asleep on Midsummer Eve and whomever you dream of that night is your true love.

There are some other methods but they usually involve being naked and running around or spinning in circles and such....

People tend to go away to their summer cottages for Midsummer and of course slap themselves (and each other) silly with birch branches tied together in big bundles.

Another thing that is pretty common (and is very unfortunate) is to drink quite a bit and go out on a boat and if you really have to pee - and can't make it to land on time, some people pee while standing up in the boat.  Unfortunately, if you're drunk enough - you might fall in and possibly drown.

It's one of the major causes of death during Midsummer celebrations...the numbers seem to have gone down - but still it can and still happens.

So don't drink and paddle!

Vappu...aka Labour Day...aka Hang-Over Day.

If you haven't read my blog last year around this time - then you probably never heard of Vappu!  Or at least not from me anyway.

You're probably wondering why (in Finland) so many young adults are wearing funky coloured jump-suits...with badges sewn all over them...and why are some wearing similar shirts or wigs or hats....
It's almost as if there is a MAJOR pub crawl about to happen.

Well, then you'd be kind of right if you thought that.
Vappu occurs every May 1st - some know it as "Labour Day", some know it as "May Day"...and some know it as "Drink a heck of a lot the night before and nurse my hang-over with a lovely picnic - rain or shine day!"
However, Vappu starts the day before and the next day is more of a relaxing and picnic day because nothing is opened.

You will also probably see an insane amount of white caps that look almost like sailor caps...those are what students get when they graduate their program.
The jump-suit colours depends on what program you are in.  I haven't seen my husband wear them at all - and I doubt I ever will.

Some things I've seen today on individuals or groups of people:

• Older lady (late 40's-50's) wearing too much make up and a purple curly-haired wig with streaks of green and hooker boots...
• Girls with green fairy wings
• Sponge Bob Square Pants t-shirt wearing girls
• Afro-wigs....several of them.
• Ladies wearing BRIGHT pink ties with the words printed on them: "GIRLS NIGHT OUT!"...before 11am.

And in case you are wondering, yes Finnish people CAN drink a lot.
I know in Canada - it's pretty common to be able to drink a lot - depending on where you are from.
Well, I am quite confident a Finn could out-drink a Newf easily and still survive (somehow).
A typical house party or drinking fest of any sort tends to start at 4pm (depending on the host) and end 12 hours later or more.  No joke.

Oh and downtown JKL had this market - I forgot to take photos but if you check out this other JKL blogger, Willie - then you can see what it looks like!

Happy Vappu!

PS And if you're wondering what yours truly is doing - I'm having some friends over for a bbq in the fire pit in the back yard....and then we'll just hang out and talk in English. Ha.