Valborgsmässoafton Posted by Katja on Apr 8, 2010 in Culture
Valborg, otherwise known as Walpurgis Night, is a pagan tradition celebrated in Scandinavia on the 30th of April (1st May in some countries). In Sweden bonfires are lit on in the evening of the 30th and coirs sing in light of the fire welcoming the spring. Traditionally people banged tins and made as much noise as they could to banishing any evil spirits or harmful animals that might be left lurking around before they let their animals out to graze for the summer.
Today it is the universities who offer the greatest celebration of Walpurgis night. On most campuses there are great firework displays in the evening as well as a breakfast or herring lunch (sillunch) offered by the university in parks near campus facilities if the weather allows such events to take place.
Sadly this is also the weekend when most people get drunk. Abuse (misshandel), drunk driving (rattfylleri) and the accidents they cause keep the police all over Sweden busy through out the weekend. It is also very common that young teenagers get so drunk that they can’t get back home after the night, so parents have made local organizations that walk around during the evening and night to help and support teenagers.
Majbrasa = May bonfire
Sillunch = Herring lunch
Valborgsmässoafton = Walpurgis Night
Rattfylleri = Drunk driving
Misshandel = abuse (physical abuse)
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Comments:
David:
In Uppsala, the famous university town, students build rickety rafts that they sail down the local river Fyrisån. It can look like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcBNUmYMDaA.
In university towns in general, choirs often hold concerts welcoming the arrival of spring. One famous song is “Längtan till landet” (Longing for the countryside), often known by its opening line, “Vintern rasat”, which you can listen to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LfdYysGZZM.
On the purely linguistic side, the word “sillunch” also neatly illustrates the fact that if a word is a compound of two words, where the first word ends with two identical letters and the second word begins with the same letter, the compound is only written with two letters: sill (herring) + lunch = sillunch, not silllunch.
Katja:
Hi David, Thanks for the contribution!