Student Cortège / Walpurgis Night

30th April, ‘Valborgsmässoafton’ or simply 'Valborg' in Swedish (=Walpurgis Night in English), is traditionally celebrated with welcoming of Spring rituals here; followed by 1st May, which is Labour Day and a national holiday (bank holiday).

'Valborg' celebrations often involve gatherings around bonfires in the evening, with choirs singing traditional spring songs (a cappella), and some local celebrity giving a speech.

In towns/cities that offer a technology program at colleges or upper secondary schools, it is also common for those students to arrange a parade (called cortège) through town, displaying more or less "crazy" home-made vehicles and costumes and posters etc; often referring to (and mocking) recent events - whether local, national or world wide. The most famous cortège is held by Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg; but  here in Borås, our upper secondary school technology students also have their own, which I understand also goes back quite a long way.

If this sounds vaguely familiar to you, I also blogged about it last year, in a similar post to this one. But this year we again had lovely spring weather for Valborg, so I decided to go and have a look when they started out from the school (which is only some 15 minutes walk from where I live).

Spectators were already lining the pedestrian/cycle path where the cortège would be passing. Some of us (me included) preferred to keep our distance and just watch from up on the cemetery hill across the street, though. 

 

 

 

 

If you want an idea of the noise they're making, there is a video in my post from last year.

I made no attempt this year either to follow the cortége into the city centre. For my own part I was quite content to just turn around and go for a quiet walk back home, across two peaceful old cemeteries.

 

Walpurgis Night / Student Cortège

30th April in Sweden is ‘Valborgsmässoafton’, in English Walpurgis Night, a traditional spring festival; followed by 1st May which is our Labour Day and a national holiday. 

'Valborg' celebrations here usually involve gathering around a bonfire in the evening of 30th April, listening to choirs singing rather solemn traditional spring songs (often a cappella), and some local celebrity greeting spring with a speech.

Another tradition is for technology students at colleges or upper secondary schools to arrange a sort of festival parade (we call it cortège) through town, with home-made vehicles and posters etc that are often supposed to refer to (and mock) recent events - whether local, national or world wide. The most famous cortège is held by Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg; but 'senior high schools' in other cities have copied the idea and developed their own.

I think it's been a while since I last attended any kind of Valborg celebration, but this year the last day of April did offer lovely spring weather (which is far from always the case); and since I live only 15 minutes walk from the technical high school, I decided to go for a walk in that direction and check out the start of this year's cortège (around 6:30 pm). Turned out there were already so many spectators lined up along the streets involved that it was hard to get close. But I snapped a video and some photos from a bit higher up on a hill nearby. I hope the video will work here, but in case it doesn't, I include some photos as well.

 

(The mountains of sand in the background are from construction work going on as they're adding a new building to the school.)

I did not follow the cortège over the bridge into the city centre, but took a little detour down into a corner of the city park, and then turned back home, passing two old cemeteries on the way. Found these lovely narcissi growing on the first/oldest one.

Greeting Spring on April 30th

In Sweden, 30th April, Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis Night) - marks the arrival of spring, and is traditionally celebrated with bonfires, choral singing, and (in some places) students' carnival parades.

This year, we had an absolutely lovely day for spring celebrations - even if capricious Nature then chose to start the month of May with a backlash to cold showers again (even including frost and snow today, brrr!)

Today, through my window...
Yep, the white stuff is snow!!

But on Tuesday, we were still in a magic spell of early summer...

I went into town in the afternoon to a music school violin orchestra concert in the old church. After that, a stroll around town and in the park; and an ice cream enjoyed on a park bench in the sunshine. And then another session of music + traditional spring songs sung acappella by a men's choir in the square.

Photos taken with my phone:

I also recorded one of the songs sung by the choir. I was hoping to be able to upload the video here too but that did not go as planned... (Maybe I have to do it via YouTube. I'll give it a try another day.)

  

Spring Is Sprung

In Sweden, we traditionally celebrate the arrival of spring on 30th April - Valborgsmässoafton / Walpurgis Night - with bonfires, choral singing and speeches. I did not personally attend any such celebration this year; but Spring seems to have been pleased enough with all the attention, and responded gracefully by giving us a beautiful first week of May.

1st May is Labour Day and a bank holiday here, and that afternoon I went for a walk into town, in search of signs of spring.

The early blossoming trees have been having a confusing time during April, with very shifting kinds of weather: some sunny days, but rather chilly winds, and several frosty nights. But they’re doing their best…

The city’s gardeners have also been busy planting pansies and other spring flowers at the end of April. This plantation is found near the railway station.

Some planting still going on – here, outside a restaurant

A beautiful afternoon for people to just sit around outside and enjoy the sun again.

Magnificent magnolia tree in the park

Labour Day is a day for political demonstrations and meetings. This is from the Social Democrats meeting in the park; with our government minister for social security speaking here this year. (Our present government consists of the Social Democrats + the Green Party.) I hung around and listened to most of her speech; but not the whole meeting.

Across the river from the Town Park there is a small park, now named after and dedicated to the memory of a former minister for foreign affairs (also a Social Democrat), Anna Lindh, who was tragically assassinated in 2003. 

The monument in the park is entitled Non-Violence and was created in 2010 by Fredrik Reuterswärd.

More cherry blossom trees on my way back home!

Linking to Friday My Town

Macro Monday Musings on 30th April

Suddenly, Spring is here. Just in time!

30th April is the traditional Spring celebration in Sweden – Valborgsmässoafton, Walpurgis Night, followed by 1st May which is Labour Day and a national holiday. As this year 30th April falls on a Monday, I’m sure a lot of people will be having a long weekend with the whole Monday off as well.

30th April is celebrated with bonfires and traditional spring songs; especially in the old university cities.

http://youtu.be/zj10eGkbsds

YouTube video from Umeå (university city in the north)
This is one of our traditional Walpurgis Night choir songs; the lyrics are all about winter giving way to spring and summer.

In some cities a carnival parade, arranged by technology students, is also part of the tradition. (See my Walpurgis Night post from last year.)

I’m not planning on any big spring celebrations for my own part this year. It’s been good to get out a little bit with the camera again over the weekend; but after weeks of bronchitis and other problems, I still find myself getting tired very quickly. Going out at night to breathe in smoke from a bonfire while trying to sing(!) does not seem like the best idea how to treat my still sore respiratory organs…

Outdoors photography is more than usual something of a gamble at the moment. My eyes are still very sensitive to light, and I have to keep my sunglasses on most of the time. The sunglasses are polaroid. The real challenge occurs every time I’m inspired to turn the camera sideways – with the sunglasses on – because then the screen on the camera goes black and I literally can’t see a thing! So occasionally I do have to take the sunglasses off to get a clue what I’m aiming at…

I have to compliment my camera on doing a good job with these cherry blossom macros though. On top of my eyesight problems and wearing sunglasses, there were also strong gusts of wind to deal with, so I had to hold the branches with one hand and manouvre the camera with the other! (These photos are all straight out of the camera, no editing.)

Happy Spring to all of you living in parts of the world where that may be applicable just now!

This post is linked to Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos.

Walpurgis Night

30 April in Sweden is ‘Valborg’, in English Walpurgis Night, a traditional spring festival; followed here by 1st May which is our Labour Day and a national holiday (which this year happened to fall on a Sunday, so no extra holiday).

One kind of Walpurgis Night Celebrations usually involves gathering around a bonfire, listening to choirs singing rather solemn traditional spring songs, and some local celebrity greeting spring with a speech.

Another tradition is that students of technical secondary schools and colleges arrange a sort of festival parade (we call it cortege), with mobile scenes that are often supposed to refer to recent political or other local, national or world events.

In the past I’ve quite often gone with friends to events of the former kind (singing and/or bonfire). Only rarely have I gone to see the cortege, since I’m not really a big fan of crowds and lots of noise. However… This Valborg I had no plans, but it was a fine evening, and since I live only ten minutes walk from the school from where the cortege was to start (around 7 pm) I decided to go for a walk and see if I could snatch a few pictures for the blog. 

Students in the school yard waiting to go in the parade.

Spectators starting to gather. Some of us thought the hill opposite the school would be a good place. As it turned out, it wasn’t.

Oops, there they come… And we don’t see a thing, except there seems to be a big hammer sticking up there in the crowd…

I have moved closer… But math was never my thing, I have no idea what this is supposed to be about. School, perhaps?

I’m making a detour through the park to get around the crowd…

Back with the crowd. Lots of people moving in the same direction; some dressed for partying all night, by the looks of it.

Some kind of big fish approaching, built on top of a number of shopping carts… By now they’re having trouble keeping it together!  Is it supposed to symbolize something? Again I have no idea…

An extra shopping cart… just in case, perhaps…

I think this was a protest against changes in the bus service. It had "[name of bus company] makes people walk” painted on the side.

Phew… Like these people, I think I’ve seen enough… Turning back home, leaving the noise of the town behind!