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Society

Valborg in Sweden: booze, music and raft racing

Published: 30 Apr 12 15:15 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/40562/20120430/

Summer is just around the corner, and this is celebrated most heartily around Sweden as the revelry of Valborgsmässoafton - Walpurgis Night – kicks off around the country. The Local's Oliver Gee finds out more.

While the actual reason behind the nationwide celebrations is largely forgotten by many, Valborg (as it is fondly and more conveniently known) honours an 8th-century German abbess, St. Walpurga - or “Valborg” in Swedish.

In most towns around Sweden, Valborg calls for a mountainous bonfire and a crowd. Maybe even a men's choir singing the traditional ditty "Vintern Rasat Ut". These spectacles are usually organized by the local municipality.

It’s a great chance to spend some time with other members of your community, many of whom take the occasion to come out of hibernation and gather, singing Swedish folk songs and dancing.

However, the real action in Sweden occurs in the nation’s student cities, especially Lund in the south and Uppsala, eastern Sweden, where revelers take the good weather with a good dose of extreme madness.

In Uppsala, this is especially true. People flock from far and wide for the biggest street-party of the year, where students let loose and lose their winter inhibitions and clothes for the first time of the year.

The day typically kicks off with a champagne breakfast, which inevitably ends up with more champagne splashed around the rooms of the student nations than in champagne glasses.

After this, thousands of eager Uppsala residents squeeze up along the walls of the little Fyris River to catch a glimpse of the 100 or so homemade rafts that students have decorated and painted specifically for the event.

With the two miniature waterfalls along the river, half the fun is watching to see if the ‘sailors’ manage to keep dry, or indeed, if the rafts keep in one piece at all.

“It was madness! Everyone was cheering,” said one sailor to The Local, from the Super Viking Brothers team.

“I toppled out on the second waterfall – the water was so cold, I could hardly move. They tried to pull me into the boat but my body was too cold to help them. But wow, that was fun!”

When the waters have calmed and the crowd has moved on, thousands gather in a boozy meeting in one of the city’s bigger parks, seeing in the warmer weather with loud music, dancing, and wild student antics only known to those who’ve looked into the eye of the beast that is a Swedish student city.

For those less keen on the mayhem, there is always a bonfire nearby in the evening, complete with opportunities to break the ice with the neighbours you may not have seen over the long Swedish winter.

All in all, while many will wake up on Tuesday with a throbbing headache, Valborg is one of the most cherished days on the Swedish calendar. But don’t say we didn’t warn you if you’re Uppsala-bound.

Oliver Gee
Follow Oliver on Twitter here

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20:18 April 30, 2012 by dizzymoe33
It all sounds like fun, but I bet you anything the aftermath from this event is terrible when it comes to the litter everywhere?!
21:03 April 30, 2012 by Alohart
In past years, the grassy areas of Ekonomicumparken, a fairly large expanse, are solid litter. Swedish students seem to think that their mothers will continue picking up after them. Now it's the responsibility of Uppsala kommun workers and a few recyclable container collectors. But this year there seem to be more trash receptacles and even some workers who seem to be trying to keep the trash from becoming overwhelming.

We live very near Ekonomicumparken. My wife and I spent a couple of hours this afternoon trying to prevent drunk students from peeing in our carports, our cellar entrances, and almost anywhere else on our brf's property. The smell is disgusting on 1 May. Most of the women wouldn't pee with us watching them. Some of the guys were so drunk they didn't care if we watched. Some became quite belligerent when we asked them to pee in Observatorietparken which is about a 30-second walk from our brf.

Overall, the behavior of many drunk students is pretty disgusting. My wife and I were called "bönder" today. Can you imagine how insulted we were? :-)

The trash and broken bottles will be nasty tomorrow :-(
20:57 May 1, 2012 by dizzymoe33
@Alohart

I am sorry that you have been treated in this matter. It is a shame that the younger generation have that sense of entitlement that they can do what ever they want to whom ever they want to without ramifications. I would be sitting outside in my chair with a shot gun across my lap!!
21:28 May 7, 2012 by old git
were you never young, poor people? and don't you think the money they spend in the community and the 25% moms on most of it do not cover the cost of a clean up by those poor overworked municipal employees, or the (well paid )private waste collection companies?
21:57 May 7, 2012 by dizzymoe33
@ Old git

Of course I was young but I was raised to respect other people's property. I wasn't running around wild and fancy free causing chaos and destruction!! But like I have said before the now generation is all about instant gratification they don't care about anyone else only what makes themselves happy because no one will hold them and their actions accountable.
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