The Mystery of the Cap.

I came to wonder why we are celebrating vappu. According to the omniscient Wikipedia, the first of May is adopted from Sweden, which in turn adopted it from the British. It would appear that the reason for most Finns to get a day off from work or school to get completely wasted is due to a British catholic saint called Walburga whose bones were transported back to her home country centuries after her death on 1.5., thus making it her feast day in England and therefore also in Scandinavia. I really do prefer the pagan view, Beltane, on this matter. Having a Lutheran holiday is one thing, but a Catholic one... seems awfully distant for someone brought up in Finland where Catholics are undoubtedly in the minority.

And then there is this business with putting on the student cap on statues. Mainly the targets tend to be females (Helsinki, Rauma, Tampere, Turku), or writers (Jyväskylä, Kajaani, Oulu, Vaasa), or animals (Lahti, Lappeenranta, Savonlinna), or a combination of two of these (Pori; the bear appears to be a female). Kuopio is the only town in Finland I know for sure put a cap on a male statue. But why? Why put a cap on a statue on vappu? Whose cap? What happens to the cap. Probably gets mysteriously lost during the few veiled hours before dawn. I know the tradition comes from Sweden but I couldn't track down the origins and motivations there.

I’m frustrated. One day off my usual routine and I have nothing interesting to do. There’s very little things to do in my town, as far as I know anyway, as far as absolutists are in question. Maybe I should just dig up that cap of mine and at least pretend I’m having the time of my life. Or I could leave it be and mope around at home, maybe go to the market square some time during the day see what they have there; at least they have Celesty there, I just don’t know when. Or I could read; after all I still have that Nathanael West waiting.