Vappu!

The 1. of May in Finland is called Vappu. For students the celebration will take about a week, not only the Vappu day. May Day is a public holiday that is the only carnival-style street festivity in the country. People young and old, particularly students, party outside, picnic and wear caps (graduation from high school) or other decorative clothing. University students are wearing their "uniforms" student boilersuit. Student boilersuits are not meant for work but for party, all the faculties in the University have different colors.

Me and my student cap just after graduation

History and use of the boilersuit: Student coveralls have become one of the most conspicuous academic traditions at some educational institutions, despite its short history. The use of overalls started in the Royal Institute of Technology in the late 1960s, and spread around Sweden and Finland during the 1970s. Apparently protective clothing was needed in excursions to companies, which soon led to use at parties as a way to identify students of different fields and organizations. The height of the use of the overall was reached in the late 1990s. Due to quick rise in popularity, most student organizations now offer the students a chance to purchase their own overalls during the freshman year. Since the 1990s, the custom has remained popular although perhaps in slight decline as the overalls are sometimes viewed to signal a lifestyle bordering on alcoholism and drunken misbehavior, up to the point where some pubs and clubs even choose to ban the use of overall uniforms. -Wikipedia

https://www.flickr.com/photos/villefi/
Boilersuits! Normally you can only wear the bottom and knot the upper part to your waist.

In my city in Finland in Tampere, there is a tradition that all the freshmen from Technical University are dipped to the rapids in the middle of the city.

People are having picnics, drinking and hopefully enjoying the beautiful weather :D If I could name any party from Poland that could be close to Vappu it is Juwenalia ;)

I already told you in the previous post what Finns are eating when it is Vappu but here are still a couple of more pictures to show how it is done!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/karviainen/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/simongotz/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/85910084@N02/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/decade_null/
Vappu

Can't wait for our own small Vappu party and the long weekend ahead! In Poland 3. of May is the day of Constitution so that it is a free day and as 2. of May is in the middle of two holidays it is free as well. There are so many concerts and festivals in Wroclaw wright now or during this long weekend that it is even hard to choose what to do :D This Wednesday we decided to go for Jazz nad Odra festival for a jam session, the festival is going on so maybe I will make another visit there ;) On Sunday there will be a Guinness record in the Rynek, task is to break the Guinness World Record in the number of people playing guitars together. I hope that the weather will be good for this small holiday! Have a great Vappu and weekend! :)
-Camilla
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Food!

This weekend I was a tour guide for a group from Finland. I need to admit that I gained so much more knowledge about the city while studying for this tour. Before I only saw a building after building but now I can actually say something about the buildings. In the end of the tour I learned that the group brought me some Finnish bread and chocolate. I was so happy to hear this! I got a huge sack of rye bread! :)

I have missed rye bread a lot! It seems to be so much more healthier and the taste is something I can only dream about! I know that in Wroclaw in Lidl you can find this kind of rye bread but unfortunately there is not any Lidl next to our place :( I would say that rye bread is the most popular bread in Finland. A traditional form of rye bread that is from western Finnish is thin and there is a whole in the middle. It is thin, there is a hole for hanging, and it is intended to remain for a long time. Western Finland, people ate mostly this kind of dried rye bread and baked only two or three times a year in large quantities at a time.

It seems that this week will be my Finnish food (and drink) week. I'm already preparing for Vappu! I started to make this special Finnish drink for 1. of May called Sima (mead). It includes water, lemon, sugar, yeast and finally some raisins. Sima will be ready to drink when the raisins rise to the top of the bottles, about three to seven days depending on the temperature of the room where the bottles are stored. Usually, the alcohol content is low and the drink is suitable for children.

Sima before bottling

 Next weekend I will also make doughnuts with sugar and our Vappu will be ready (+some sparkling wine)! :) I will write more about Vappu celebration in Finland later this week.

-Camilla

Easter!

This year my Easter will be a bit different and not "traditional" in Finnish nor Polish sense. Finland national football team is playing against Poland here in Wroclaw this Saturday. Football game is not the most traditional way to spend Easter, but I can't wait to cheer for both teams (maybe more for Finland :D) I don't know how loudly I'm actually able to cheer for Finland as I don't want any Polish football hooligans against me.
I would like to introduce traditions from Finland and from Poland related to Easter. I want to concentrate to traditions that were new for me in Poland and traditions from Finland that I believe are weird for foreigners.

Finland

1. Virpominen: In Palm Sunday kids dress up like witches and they go from door to door in their neighborhood with decorated pussy willows wishing happiness and health. Normally kids will get chocolate eggs in exchange. These children dress up like witches are using a lot of different colors in their outfit (so not like in Halloween!)

   

   Me and my sister as witches :P

2. Mämmi: traditional Finnish Easter dessert that it made of  water, rye flour, and powdered malted rye, seasoned with dark molasses, salt, and dried powdered Seville orangezest. It is normally eaten with sugar and milk or cream. My personal favorite is to eat it with vanilla souse. :P Mämmi doesn't look so delicious and that is why it is weird.

Mämmi. Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/stello74/

Poland

1.  Blessing of the Easter basket: Baskets containing a sampling of Easter foods are brought to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday. Foods in the basket have a symbolic meaning, normally it contains eggs, bread, lamb, salt and some ham (last year I also saw some chocolate eggs).

   

   Photo from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zakwitnij/

2. Wet Monday: Huge water war :D You can't feel safe anywhere (specially if you are a girl). Boys can have water guns on the streets or somebody may pour water from the window when you are walking by.

   

   Photo from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ridg/

In my opinion these are the most interesting traditions from both countries. Now I'm just dreaming about some mämmi... ;)

-Camilla