| From: [email protected] (Torkel Franzen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: End of April
Date: 1 May 90 16:06:46 GMT
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
In article <[email protected]> [email protected]
(Shahin Kahn) writes:
>So, I guess we'll see y'all on wednesday once you recover from
>the end of april festivities. Maybe then someone could
>describe the origin of this celebration (and in what parts of
>nordlandia it is celebrated).
April 30 is known in Swedish as 'valborg' (or, more formally,
'valborgs- massoafton') - you will know it by its German name,
Walpurgisnacht. The celebration was originally a lighting of bonfires
to keep away ghosts, evil spirits, and other such trouble makers who
are known to be active during Walpurgis Night.
Of course these days the emphasis has shifted. Valborg has two main
aspects: it is a celebration of the arrival of spring, with lots of
people gathering around bonfires and men's choirs singing traditional
'spring songs', and it is an occasion for thousands of young people to
get stinking drunk and make a nuisance of themselves.
I don't usually partake in these festivities, but this year I had a
reason for being present when the Skansen bonfire was lit. I
accordingly boarded the ferry from Slussen to Djurgarden. Valborg is
traditionally plagued by bad weather, with fizzling bonfires, shivering
spectators, and singers howling desperately to make themselves heard
through the sleet, but this year the weather in Stockholm was
unbelievably fine, with spring already here in full force, not a cloud
in the sky, and a temperature of 26 degrees Celsius at around 7 in the
evening. In other words, it was a policeman's nightmare. (The police
can be seen gathering in large congregations just before Valborg and
Midsummer, fervently praying for rain and cold.)
This early in the evening there was nothing for the police to do.
People were migrating to various spots, chiefly of course to
Djurgarden, and the city had put on its tourist brochure face. Young
and old, the Valborg celebrants had a look of slightly fatuous pleasure
and expectation, quite a few of them wearing the white 'student cap'.
This, too, is part of the Valborg tradition: come spring, the class of
'24 totter forth, waving their caps, now brittle and yellow with age,
greeting spring with gleeful cackles - in all, a heartening spectacle.
Actually, this part of the tradition is celebrated much more in Uppsala
and Lund than in Stockholm, where you see the white cap mostly on young
people just graduating from the gymnasium.
Stepping off the ferry at Djurgarden, the passengers split into two
main streams, one heading for the Grona Lund amusement park, the other
for Skansen - a kind of combined outdoors cultural museum and zoo, for
those who don't know Stockholm. It's full of old buildings brought
together from all over Sweden, among them Delsbogarden, where the
bonfire was. I got there with about half an hour to spare, so I took up
a comfortable position some fifteen meters away from the big pile of
twigs and branches (mostly spruce and pine) that was to provide the
fire. This was not quite my idea of what a Valborg bonfire should look
like. Rather, it should be composed of a huge jumble of wooden and
cardboard boxes, discarded pieces of furniture, branches and logs and
shavings, lots of newspapers, various unidentifiable combustibles. This
was the nature of Valborg bonfires in my childhood, when we spent weeks
bringing stuff together for the fire.
Of course the beginning of May was different too, with the snow only
just melting away, and the river breaking up, pushing huge groaning
mountains of ice up on the banks. The Skansen fire was not safely
isolated in an open place, but bordered by trees and grass, so several
firemen were about, dragging a hose and drenching surrounding areas.
They were also pouring liberal quantities of gasoline on the pile - the
light north-easterly breeze carried a powerful smell to where I was
sitting. A considerable crowd had gathered, perhaps around two thousand
people. The choir - the well-known Par Bricole - had positioned itself
somewhere in the crowd, and as the fire was lit they burst into song.
The program on these occasions is strictly traditional, and their first
song was of course 'Vintern ra'. The title is really 'Vintern rasat
ut..', but the 'ra' form, which is commonly heard, brings out the fact
that these songs make the absolute most of vowels in the lyrics, not
infrequently dragging them out to a glass-shattering braying crescendo.
On this occasion, the effect of the song was overshadowed by that of
the fire. Once it caught on, it was clear that the firemen had rather
overdone the gasoline treatment: a huge, black, billowing cloud, as of
a thousand burning tires, rose from the pile of twigs and branches,
with fire demons throwing themselves jubilantly into the air. The whole
was carried by the breeze to where I and many others were sitting,
causing us to feel that we were being roasted as well as smothered in
smoke. A minor panic followed as we jumped up and scrambled left and
right, and a fireman hurriedly brought the hose to bear on the escaping
flames. As it turned out, the fire was soon brought under control, and
proceeded to burn in a reasonable way with only occasional
discouragement from the fireman. I stayed on the spot until the fire
was dying down and the choir had all but lifted from the ground with
their final
uti vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarsoooooooooooooooooooolens glans!
and then, with my hair full of smoke, fortified for yet another spring,
took myself home.
|
| From: "Jonas E. Anderson" <[email protected]>
Organization: Central Michigan University
Subject: Springtime festivity in Sweden
Hi, it's getting closer to the shift between April and May and that is
the occassion for a rather large and festive occassion in Sweden. I
found the following description in a brochure called:"Traditional
Festivities in Sweden", publisized by The Swedish Institute, available
at most embassies etc.
The Feast of Valborg and May Day <Valborgsm�ssoafton och F�rsta Maj>
The Feast of Valborg, on the 30th of April, is often translated as
Walpurgis Night.
Normally, Spring is already well established in the southern reaches of
Sweden, while northerners will still have to wait a few weeks longer.
Nevertheless, this is the evening Swedes welcome the Spring. The
holiday is especially celebrated in university communities. In Uppsala,
site of Sweden's oldest university, students gather by the thousands in
the afternoon and don their white caps to mark the change of season.
They listen to traditional hymns to the Spring and student songs, to
speaches hailing the end of the dark, cold winter and the return of the
sun and the summer greenery. Many parties are held in the evening.
The rest of Sweden "sings in the Spring" in similar fashion. often
around large community bonfires.
The idea of the Feast of Valborg as the first day of the Spring is
perhaps most widespread in Swedish towns and cities, while Spring
traditionally reaches the countryside the following day, especially in
the south.
May Day celebrations clearly have a longer history than Valborg. May
Day was often the occasions for outdoor picnics, with games and contest
of various kinds. Eggs were prominent in May Day games and meals. In
modern times, as in other countries, May Day is primarly Labour Day,
with parades and speeches by labour leaders and socialist politicians.
It was proclaimed an official holiday 1938.
<End of article>
Personal comments: I can only say that this is really one of the few
times a year that I really feel the distance from Sweden in my
"isolation" up here in Michigan. It is really a great day when you go
up to the castle of Uppsala, situated on the highest point in the city,
and see the great bonfire, listen to the world known university choir,
O.D.(Orphei Draengar), and see all the flags representing the
university flapping in the nightly wind, it is really a time to be with
your friends and family.
You can also participate in various students events such as river-
rafting trough the city etc..!!
Unfortunately the last year's has the public disorder grown on this
day, partially due to the growth of the city with people celebrating
this day without understanding the meaning of it.
But overall it is the arrival of the spring and a day when I will put
on my swedish studentcostume, and hat , and celebrate it in all my
solitude...:):)
Hope you'll have a good Spring,
Jonas
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