Valborg!! Part 1: Watercrafts

Walpurgis, the 30th of April, marks the end of the winter in Sweden and Finland, and is the most important festive celebration of the year alongside of Christmas and Midsummer

Walpurgis in Sweden: Valborg

Valborg is celebrated in Sweden in different ways, always depending on the part of the country. Lighting large bonfires is a popular celebration in eastern parts of Sweden like in Svealand or Uppland, where people gather material for their bonfires for months ahead. Lighting bonfires is an ancient custom related to keeping away evil spirits, demons and witches.

Nowadays Valborg is just seen as a celebration of springtime, but for a feel of the good old Viking days the Skansen Open-Air museum still celebrates Stockholm's largest and most historical Valborg celebration.

For most of the Swedes though, Valborg just means the end of the winter season and there is no better way to celebrate it than singing Spring songs. Spring songs and choral singing are very typical of the Swedish Valborg celebrations, with many of the traditional songs dating from as back as the 19th century. The most popular and traditional spring festivities are held in the old university towns of Uppsala, Lund and Gothenburg, with its famous carnival parade.

Current and graduated students party all day and all night, and even perhaps longer than that, wearing all the time their characteristic white graduation caps. Valborg is a double national festivity in Sweden because King Carl XVI Gustaf celebrates his birthday on Valborg's day, 30th of April. Swedish flags are raised all around the country to salute him and show him respect.

Forsränningen and "The hat ceremony" at Carolina Rediviva are important events on the last day in April –The BIG day of Uppsala. This is the day where we welcome spring and the whole town is full of picnic blankets, spring songs and student hats. Uppsala, the city of traditions have captured generations with its traditional celebration of Valborg. Celebrating the last of April in Uppsala is something that you do not want to miss whether you do it as a participator in the race, a functionary or a spectator.

Jenley, Dom, LL, Alex and I took a 8:25 bus to Uppsala.. there is a special promotion that for selected routes, customers can choose to pay using a special Swebus prepaid card.. the route from Stockholm to Uppsala costs 50kr for students but if u pay using the card, its only 34kr.. cool.. the train to Uppsala costs 39kr.. Today is the 30th April.. thus we decided to go up to Uppsala to check out the celebrations..

we have been up here before in Winter.. if u r interested.. u may click here to take a look wat issit like w/o all the partying n mess now..
Uppsala in Winter

WHen we reached Uppsala, Dom contacted his Swedish friend who invited us to his place to have some Swedish porridge eaten esp during this period.. The porridge is actually just oatmeals cooked so that it looks like porridge..

n they eat it with milk around it with lingonberry sauce on it..

There were lots of ppl in his place.. mostly Swedish.. they r gonna go out n then party til 4am the next morning.. we decided to go see the famous Forsränningen by the Fysi River..

Forsränningen is one of the biggest and most famous student events in the country. It is a competition where teams, consisting of four people, use their imagination and their creativity to create crafts. When the crafts are made the race takes place in the centre of Uppsala when they enter Fyrisån to defy the waterfalls and the cold water in. The creativity, the daredevil ness and the Ice cold water makes about 400000 excited spectators come to see this spectacular event each year. The fleet that manages to impress the sole judge principal magnificus at the university of uppsala the most wins the competition.

How did the race begin?

In the spring of 1975 two students, Anders Ahnesjö and Carl-Johan Hansson, had grown a bit tired of the fact that they could not use the things that they had learned on a practical level, everything seemed to theoretical. Growing tired of Integrals and formulas they started searching for an adventures challenge in their everyday lifes. The answer laid right in front of them –Fyrisån, this indomitable beast of nature. They decided to make a bet, they were going to head down spring flood in a homemade craft. The date was set to the last of April, and they were not about to back down though their friends told them not to do it. After careful calculations concerning the physiological capacities of the craft they dared to defy nature. To their great excitement they made it down the gigantic waterfalls in one piece, and the first race in history had been carried out. Thrilled by the experience they decided to do the same ting next year, but then they would invite everyone to participate in the battle against nature.

The banks of the Fysi river were crowded with ppl... there were so many ppl in Uppsala.. everything have to queue.. even the mobile network is down.. its very hard to call out from Uppsala..

Everywhere is sort of like a carnival with candy stores n ppl selling balloons..

More pics of the crowd gathering on the river bank..




There were lots of police around as well... for crowd control..

When we got there, it was too crowded.. we made our way to the mini waterfall where the action is.. but its also super crowded.. we squeeze ourself in but not near enuff to see wat the fuss is abt.. i feel that if i came all the way to Uppsala n not having pictures to show for it, i will feel very pek cek.. haha so i told JL to sit on my shoulders n take pictures n videos using my camera but haha unfortunately they were spectacularly nice.. wasted my effort.. Dom tried that with LL but gave up after a while.. then LL suggested to let Dom sit on her shoulder..

There was this old ingenious Swedish guy who came near us with 2 of his homemade periscopes.. haha we borrowed one from him n shared it among the 5 of us.. haha.. cool.. we were able to see exactly wat happened..



we managed to finally squeeze into the crowd somemore to get a better view.. this is the mini waterfall which all the crafts of the contestants have to overcome..

There were safety personnel on the side.. divers ready to jump in whenever any contestants fell from their crafts..

Each craft had a unique design.. sometimes representing certain countries or other stuff like rock bands n stuff like that..


The Pimp mobile.. n getting down successfully but getting stucked along the way..


Most crafts made it down the waterfall with at most one or two parts falling off.. but this plane shaped craft disintegrated completely..

Falling..

Sinking... note that safety diver with the blue helmet rushing to help those falling off..

Back up again..

Really admire these ppl.. their efforts n bravery n esp their thick skinnedness.. haha the water temperature that day was around 10 degree celsius.. skin have to be thick to withstand the cold.. worse if u fall into the water..


Pirate ship..

Their fence r falling off..

toilet papers?

Norway, Sweden, Finland.. Scandinavian combi..

dont noe wat is this.. but looks interesting..

Saving their bunny... their bunny at the back almost broke off after coming down the waterfall..

Playmates..

Ash Tray..

Surviving crafts finishing the journey down the Fysi River..

Tried to take a group photo.. this ang moh guy rushed in from behind to join us as well..