witches' night

so yesterday was the culmination of the May 1st Vappunaatto/Labor Day celebrations. the day begin with the traditional student marches, down to a statue by the river where the ritual of washing the statue and placing a white sailor-type hat on it's head. this is the hat that all who are graduates wear, and May 1st is the first day of the year the hat can begin to be worn (in the past people wore them all summer). the students are dressed in coveralls, each color representing their discipline or course of study (white coveralls are for art students/faculty). the purpose of the coveralls is to basically prevent any grubbiness acquired through drunken madness from getting on your clothes.


getting ready for procession


lapin yliopisto coveralls


walking towards the river


prepared to celebrate properly

anyway, i went down to the river with the rest of the townsfolks and listened to speeches and an orchestra as the students camped out around the base of the statue and everyone had champagne or something to drink.








students washing the statue and putting a big white scholar's cap on his head


i ran into Pia again, and she and i shared cider and champagne with her friends, who also let me try the special donut-like pastry people make for Vappu.


Pia's friends handing out Vappu pastries


Pia eating a pastry


oh yeah, there's also this this thing near the end of the ceremonies where the firetrucks soak all the first year students as a sort of hazing ritual/rite of passage. it was +0C that day, by the way

the eve of May 1st, aka Walpurgis Night (witches' night) is traditionally one of the biggest parties in Finland of the whole year. by a random series of events, which involved me originally contacting this guy from a local band, Orkestar Business Class, wanting to know where i could buy their music in town, i ended up having real fun the Finnish way. first, about this band - according to their myspace page:

"Orkestar Business Class is what you get when you mix the songs of the Russian and Balkan gypsies with the voice of the last of the great Finnish tango 'crooners', Jaakko Laitinen, the gypsy-punk violin of Matti Kanabro, the cool rhythm guitar of Antti Alatalo and marinate them in the harsh climatic conditions of the Finnish Lapland. Sometimes the songs reflect deepest sadness, sometimes bursting up to fierce speeds and sometimes being gentle and violent at the same time."

OF COURSE i had to get a full recording of this amazingness if at all possible. anyway, the lead singer, Jaakko, suggested i met him at yet another party at the railway station, and make the transaction there. Jaakko was of course a really friendly guy and i ended up hanging out with him and his friends while the Suomi brännvin flowed freely into the early hours of the morning. we wandered around town as a group checking out more pubs for awhile, and it goes without saying that it's quite easy to lose track of time when it seems the sun never really sets (even though its only May)...


watching a band at the train station


night time hijinks


everyone and everything looked like this after awhile

today, after a good healthy sleep, i met up with one of Jaako's friends/guy from last night's group, a very interesting young man named Olli. among other things, he's currently working on his master's thesis in library and information sciences, which is about the LP collection in the music library of Rovaniemi. he is, of course, a huge music fan, and in addition to watching the ice hockey match later between Finland and Russia, we talked music, all our mutual favorite bands...Bauhaus, the Stooges, MC5, Dead Can Dance, etc....! also, he dresses like an Eastern European used car salseman. so awesome.


Olli!

however, the day was marred by two strange and intense incidents: i awoke to find 3 text messages from a friend in Sweden who i had just spoken to the night before. apparently, literally minutes after getting off the phone with me, he and his cousin were assaulted by some (most likely drunken) mob of youths. he cracked his nose and his cousin got a concussion due to multiple kicks to the head. uh....? shocking, to say the least. i was so saddened to hear that this gentle and kind person had been attacked for no reason.

speaking of things happening for no reason, the second lame thing of the day was: as i was walking down the street after hanging out with Olli, i walked past some guys that were so drunk they could hardly stand and was called a pretty harsh racial epithet. they guy just looked at me and said it quite matter-of-factly, and i just kept walking and trying to pretend like i wasn't totally bummed out. this has never happened to me in my life. i'm fine, not too much harm done...i'm just glad my little private room i've been staying with was nearby, so i coud just be by myself for a while, eat some food, watch a movie on tv and put it out of my mind.




regardless, i'm getting the hell out of Rovaniemi tomorrow and going to Sodankylä, about 2 hours north of here, where i'm going to be staying with a Canadian ex-pat in an old wood house and help him out with various small things around here, as well as spend lots of time in the forest. more about that later!