Vappu (1st of May)

On the 1st of May people start having their picnic in a parc called Vartiovuori which lies next to the Aura river. In the parc music bands are playing and people gather taking their food and drinks with them. 
While lying on the gras, they enjoy eating and drinking and celebrating Vappu's day.
Apart from the picnic Finns also sell different kind of stuff at the market place and the area then looks more like a fairground.

During Vappu people would also make some traditional food. The "Vappumunkit" which look like donuts as well as the "Tippaleipä" are sweets Finns eat during those days. The "Sima" is the typical Vappu drink and insists of lemon and raisins.

Having finished the picnic the people go back home and the city will be quite empty the next few days because people are fairly tired of celebrating for the whole week. 

I really enjoyed Vappu and I was quite suprised that those days are so special. Some students at university have told me before that Vappu is going to be an extremely big and momentous event. I now know what they meant when seeing it myself. I think I have never seen so many Finnish people at one place before.