Mayday! Mayday!

ilmapalloja - ballons

I'm a bit bemused by how excited everyone (i.e. Konna) is getting about Vappu (May Day to the rest of us) - celebrations for which start on Thursday (like all things Finnish they have to start the night before everyone else...) and seem to include 

• a statue having a hat put on it, 
  
• buying ballons, 
  
• ex-students wearing white hats, 
  
• needing to book a month in advance to get a restaurant table,
  
• having a day long picnic on Friday.  
  

Lots of people have asked if I have been here for Vappu before. When they learn I haven't they generally shake their heads and say 'oh well you'll find out' and start talking about picnics. Suspicions aroused by this a bit of lazy googling careful research throws up the enlightening quote:

Vappu without drinking is like Christmas without presents

Now I understand... 'Picnic' is Finnish shorthand for 'reliving your student years by getting steaming drunk on cheap champagne (or shampange as Konna calls it) while sitting in a park with ten thousand other people doing likewise'.  Oh great.