Vappu is the name of the Finnish May Day celebrations. Vappu packs three reasons to celebrate into one. Vappu is Finnish labor day. The rights of the workers have been celebrated on this day since the early 1900’s. In addition, vappu is also an important celebration for students.

It’s also the perfect time to celebrate the beginning of spring (kevät), which is also where the deep roots of May Day lay. Around this time of the year, there used to be an ancient spring celebration  where villages would build bonfires, dance and sing to evict evil spirits and winter. While May is a spring month in Finland, it’s not terribly exceptional for it to still snow around May Day.

The name vappu is derived from the name Valburg. Saint Walburga was mother superior in a nunnery during the middle ages. She and her brother did important work to spread Christianity in Europe and Finland.

Bustling City Center May Day Events

On May Day, the city centers are generally packed with people wearing a white cap with a black flap (ylioppilaslakki). These caps are awarded to students that graduate (valmistua) high school (lukio). On May Day, everyone dusts their cap off and puts it on – no matter how many decades ago they graduated.

In addition to the caps, the city centers are usually also full of university (yliopisto) students wearing overalls (haalarit). Each city and university has these overalls, which differ in color based on what the university students are majoring in.

Different cities have traditions of their own. In Helsinki on the evening before May Day, students will put a big student cap on the female statue called Havis Amanda. In Tampere, first-year students of the Technical University get “baptized” (teekkarikaste). They enter a small floating platform and are dipped into the water of Tammerkoski (the rapids in the city center) while drinking champagne.

Typical May Day Celebration Foods

There are several food related traditions related to May Day. Firstly, many people like to go to a restaurant with friends or family to eat brunch or lunch there. It’s also common to go on a May Day picnic with friends, if the weather permits it. Many people also buy tippaleipä from the store, which is a crunchy, sweet, deep fried snack. Another common sweet food is munkki, a type of Finnish donut. In the city centers, they also sell cotton candy and liquorice to the masses gathering there.

As is typical for most Finnish celebrations, May Day generally includes alcohol. Sparkly wine and champagne are common beverages. In addition, the traditional May Day drink is sima, Finnish fermented mead. Many families make their own using lemons, honey, yeast and raisins.

Example Sentences

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