May Day is known as Vappu in Finland, and it is celebrated on the 1st of May, yet many festivities start already on the eve of May Day. Since Finland doesn't have any other fun holidays, May Day is often like a carnival. People dressing up in silly costumes and having fun outside at parks and restaurant terraces. Since May starts to be already warmer weather wise, it feels like people are awakened from their hibernation. Everybody is in a good mood and just strolling around the city to see their friends, eat good and simply have fun. Many cities also have May Day concerts, parades and other happenings
We will be going to our friend's place tonight to celebrate May Day. We'll just hang out along with good food and drinks. I don't want you to feel left out from all the fun stuff we'll be doing, so I made a quick guide for Finnish May Day traditions for you to enjoy. Here are the essentials that you will need to have for a proper Finnish May Day celebration.
1) SIMA = MEAD
Ingredients for sima include lemon, active dry yeast, and raisins. Sugar is added as brown sugar, white sugar, honey or some combination of them. The concoction of water and the lemon and sugars are mixed, boiled, and cooled to room temperature. The yeast is added and the mixture left to stand overnight. Then it is carefully decanted into bottles and a few raisins are added to each bottle.
The sima will be ready to drink when the raisins rise to the top of the bottles, about three to seven days depending on the temperature of the room where they are stored. Sima is usually served chilled.
Alcohol content in sima is low and the drink is suitable for children. Carbonation is produced by the yeast, and the drink is traditionally cloudy and not clarified or filtered. Because of this, traditional sima is a fresh product that does not store for long.
I am a very crappy sima maker, so I always buy mine. This year I bought couple bottles of sima from a group of cub scouts. They were so cute with their little sima stand at the local shopping center. It reminded me of little kids selling lemonade in the US. You can also buy sima from a grocery store but it doesn't taste as good as home made sima.
The name of the cub scouts was "Sharks", so they called their mead "Sharks' Mead". They even had made their own labels for the bottles.
They had an ingredient list on the bottle too.
"Genuinely original"
Raisins on top of the mead.
A little cub scout called Elias made this bottle. CUTE!
Sparkling yumminess!
2) SERPENTIINI = STREAMERS
For the May Day, Finns decorate their homes with colorful streamers. You can also wear them around your neck for a festive look.
3) MUNKKI = SUGARED SWEET FRIED BREAD
May Day is not the same if you don't eat at least one munkki. They taste so good! Munkki is basically sweet dough that is fried and then sugared. Usually there is also jam inside a munkki. My employer treated us all with apple jam filled munkkis today (*smile*).
4) ILMAPALLO = BALLOON
Besides decorating your home with streamers, you also need balloons. The bigger, the better! You can buy regular balloons from the store or you can get big helium balloons from a market place or special store. There will be plenty of balloon sellers all over the Finnish cities on May Day.
5) VAPPU NAAMIO = MAY DAY MASK
May Day attire requires a mask. Remember, May Day is like a carnival for the Finns, so dress colorful and wear something silly, for example colorful big eye lashes or a funny hat. The crazier, the better. Masks are also useful the day after because if you happen to feel bit rundown from all the partying, nobody can see your tired face if you are wearing a mask (*giggle*).
No comments:
Post a Comment