Valborgsmässoafton

The Eve before May (i.e., April 30)






To celebrate the arrival of spring, the Swede's sing songs and share poems around a big bonfire the night before May 1. They actually sang "La Bamba" in Spanish, which threw me for a loop.








As my friend Henrik explained to me in an email:

"Valborg was a saint, "mässo" comes from the word mässa which means something like "chant", and "afton" means "eve". Its a mix of traditions - originating from ancient european pagan traditions - however, in general and today its mostly about celebrating spring."






The bonfire was followed by music and beers in the pub at the tourist station. Meet "Pika Power", the one-man band! I have to say, it was fun - I did some dancing. Pretty funny though - he covered all kinds of music and had recordings of drumbeats and other accompaniment playing in the background.

At 1 am, the sky was actually dark, though we still didn't need
headlamps to walk home that night. May 1st is a national holiday.
It's meant to be a day spent demonstrating for workers' rights,
though I am told that rarely occurs these days.