Summer is just around the corner, and
this is celebrated most heartily around Sweden as the revelry of
Valborgsmässoafton - Walpurgis Night – kicks off around the country. The Local
finds out more.
While the actual reason behind the
nationwide celebrations is largely forgotten by many, Valborg (as it is fondly
and more conveniently known) honours an 8th-century German abbess, St. Walpurga
- or “Valborg” in Swedish.
In most towns around Sweden, Valborg calls
for a mountainous bonfire and a crowd. Maybe even a men's choir singing the
traditional ditty "Vintern Rasat Ut". These spectacles are usually organized by
the local municipality.
It’s a great chance to spend some time
with other members of your community, many of whom take the occasion to come out
of hibernation and gather, singing Swedish folk songs and dancing.
However, the real action in Sweden occurs
in the nation’s student cities, especially Lund in the south and Uppsala,
eastern Sweden, where revelers take the good weather with a good dose of extreme
madness.
In Uppsala, this is especially true.
People flock from far and wide for the biggest street-party of the year, where
students let loose and lose their winter inhibitions and clothes for the first
time of the year.
More boat racers in Uppsala. Photo: Fredrik
Sandberg/TT
The day typically kicks off with a
champagne breakfast, which inevitably ends up with more champagne splashed
around the rooms of the student nations than in champagne glasses.
After this, thousands of eager Uppsala
residents squeeze up along the walls of the little Fyris River to catch a
glimpse of the 100 or so homemade rafts that students have decorated and painted
specifically for the event.
With the two miniature waterfalls along
the river, half the fun is watching to see if the ‘sailors’ manage to keep dry,
or indeed, if the rafts keep in one piece at all.
When the waters have calmed and the crowd
has moved on, thousands gather in a boozy meeting in one of the city’s bigger
parks, seeing in the warmer weather with loud music, dancing, and wild student
antics only known to those who’ve looked into the eye of the beast that is a
Swedish student city.
For those less keen on the mayhem, there
is always a bonfire nearby in the evening, complete with opportunities to break
the ice with the neighbours you may not have seen over the long Swedish
winter.
All in all, while many will wake up on
Thursday with a throbbing headache, Valborg is one of the most cherished days on
the Swedish calendar. But don’t say we didn’t warn you if you’re
Uppsala-bound.
Oliver Gee
http://www.thelocal.se/20120430/40562
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