May Day is celebrated annually on May 1st in Finland. May Day and its eve the 30th of April are celebrated as a carnival celebration for workers, students and beginning of the spring.
In Helsinki, students cap the Havis Amanda (meaning “the sea’s beloved“) statue on May Day Eve with certain rituals, songs and champagne. Everyone who has a white student cap wears it on both holidays. The May Day celebration also includes balloons, streamers, donuts, and drink “sima” which is made from water, lemon and sugar.
The Finnish-Luxembourg Society (Finlux) has organised for several years the capping of the statue of Princess Amélie in Luxembourg with similar ceremonies as the students in Helsinki. This year the young students Sara, Lukas and Leon successfully placed the white cap on Amélie’s hair using a telescopic fishing rod. The audience of 60 people cheered with excitement while the cap reached the top!
This year we also had the students of Järvenpää High School as guests and they performed their awesome dance poetry performance in front of the statue. The poems were by famous Finnish poets L. Onerva, Tyyne Saastamoinen and Tommy Tabermann. The performance reflected the faith of the students in the world full of open doors: you can do anything, except to step on the sensitive soul!
Next day the Finns continued celebrating the May Day in Bambesch playground, many of them proudly wearing their white student cap. The Finnish-Luxembourg Society had prepared a table with traditional May Day donut and “sima” to welcome the Finns to celebrate the arrival of spring.
The sunny day attracted around 130 adults with their own picnic bags and blankets. The number of children was impossible to count, as they were running, playing, water fighting and hiding. Adults enjoyed the day by singing and chatting and sharing not only the food and good mood, but also – as the cream of the cake – the excellent Luxembourgish crémant!
Text: Raija Konsala and Anne Järvenpää, Pictures: Helca Larinkoski