Valborgmassoafton....

So there's another remarkable Swedish holiday that I should tell you about. Frankly, it is a much bigger event that Våffledagen was. Valborg (Walpurgis Day) is a hefty event here in Sweden coming on the night before May Day, at least officially. In some ways, it is difficult to describe how the Swedes go about celebrating this holy day. It is an experience one must undergo in order to have any sense of its meaning. However, I'll attempt to give you a taste of it by quoting my U of W Swedish professor,

"The official holiday is April 30th, Valborgsmassoafton, but the Swedes usually start partying at least a week beforehand--especially in the university towns like Uppsala. Lots of drinking...more or less constantly, and piling up wood and couches and junk in the central squares. Then, on the night before May 1st they put on their 'mössa', the little white officer's hat they all get when they graduate from high school, and go out and get absolutely puking drunk and ignite all this stuff in the squares into huge bonfires. Oh they love it."

Well, as foreign students expected to engage with the local culture as a part of the 'Fulbright experience', my fellow Fulbright scholars and I felt obliged to head for the epicenters of this racous event to investigate...


We gathered on kugsholmen, bought a few pizzas, and went down to the local park to await the action. At 7 o'clock there were already people stumbling on the green with their graduation caps cocked at jaunty angles on their heads. A few garage bands were set up here and there, drawing the crowds into dense concentrations and opening a few spots on the field for a football game or some drunken handstands.


There was definitely a very festive atmosphere in the park despite the near winter temperatures. We weren't sure we'd last until dark when the fires were expected to light the night sky. It was just so bloody cold! Our thin, Swedish pizzas were like chilled catfood before we even sat down. Yet, we were having fun as we usually do together--batting jokes and one-liners around until a whirl of smoke and sparks signaled that the bonfire was being built up higher.

It was much warmer beside the fire which had already been burning all day. In fact, it was searing. Your clothes would scrorch you if you stood too close. The fire was rather subdued, but it was hotter than the sun. You really could not face the fire at all, everyone had to turn away from the heat.

Then, as darkness fell, a few beer boxes and newspapers went into the blaze and things really got going. Before midnight, when the drunks began to congregate around the open bonfires in greater numbers--all teetering and weaving as if they would tumble right into it the very next minute--, we were so cold that we decided to track for home. After all, it wasn't the last opportunity we were going to have to witness the Stockholmers running wild.

It was graduation season. All the highschool (gymnasium) graduates were being issued their white mössa caps and charging out on the town to celebrate.

The traditional way of doing so was to get a few friends, some birch branches, balloons, and way too much beer and get into an open-topped vehicle to drive around the center of the city all day blowing the horn and screaming and shouting drunkenly. Loud music is key, of course. This photo really captures it all, the open-topped cars, the balloons, the summer dresses, the effusive patriotism (Iraqi, in this particular case), the constant getting in and out of vehicles...

At first, it is really quite comical. All these people parading about and making a huge fuss..

...but after two weeks of it (the schools hold graduation in succession), the entire city gets driven a little bit crazy by the incessant horn blowing--especially from those who rent big trucks with airhorns and huge stereo systems--, the shouting, the beer cans all over the street, and the traffic jams of vehicles throbbing with music. Here, some of the more 'spendy' celebrants tour the city in a rented dump truck complete with birch branches and a massive stereo system.

I'm not sure that the 6-yr old in the front seat with the water pistol was a member of the class of 2006.