Vappu

From an upper-class feast to a student carnival

Vappu is the Finnish name for Walpurgis Night, the eve of the feast of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess, which coincided with older May Eve festivals across northern Europe. In Finland it has become one of the four biggest holidays of the year and the biggest carnival-style festival in the country’s cities and towns. Since the end of the 19th century this traditional upper-class feast has been taken over by university students, and student traditions — particularly those of engineering students — are among its main features. Many former high school students wear the black-and-white student cap, and many university students wear student overalls.

Vappu also coincides with International Workers’ Day. What began with the parties of the left has spread across the whole Finnish political scene, and parties and institutions, including the Lutheran Church, march and make speeches on 1 May.

The capping of Manta

In Helsinki the high point comes at 6 pm on 30 April at Market Square, where university students place a student cap on the head of Havis Amanda, a bronze mermaid rising from the water on a granite fountain, made by the sculptor Ville Vallgren and unveiled in 1908. The ceremony is called Mantan lakitus, “the capping of Manta”, after the statue’s Finnish nickname. Other cities have their own statues: in Turku students cap the Posankka, and in Oulu the statue of Frans Michael Franzén.

On 1 May people celebrate with a picnic in the park, usually with friends on a blanket with food and sparkling wine; some set up lavish spreads with pavilions, white tablecloths, silver candelabras and classical music. The picnics start early in the morning, and some of the previous night’s party-goers simply carry on. Student organisations reserve areas where they camp every year, among student caps, mead, streamers and balloons.