July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Wishing you a happy Vappu, Vardavar (05/03/06)
Back in the Saddle
By By JACK RONALD-
A belated, “Happy Vappu” to everyone.
Vappu was Monday, in case you missed it.
Never heard of it? Neither had I until this weekend when I had an e-mail from a friend in Finland.
Salla Nazarenko and her husband Denis live in a city I refer to as “Unpronounceable.” Denis, one of my former translators, is working on his master’s degree at the University of Unpronounceable.
Salla’s a journalist and a native Finn. In fact, before she and Denis got married, her last name was an unpronounceable as the city they live in. (The Finnish language seems to have a surplus of vowels, as far as I can tell.)
Thanks to the Internet, we’ve kept in touch. And this weekend’s e-mail brought Happy Vappu wishes.
May 1 is lots of things, but Vappu was a new one for me, though it’s been around since about 1890.
Turns out, it’s essentially Finnish Labor Day, a local variant of international workers’ day.
But basically, it’s a day for goofing off and eating May Day fritters and drinking way too much homemade mead. Festive Finns also tend to wear a particular hat when they celebrate Vappu, a white cap that looks like something a sailor might wear.
The e-mail was accompanied by a photo of Salla and Denis’s baby daughter looking appropriately festive in a Vappu hat several times too large.
If you missed Vappu — and I’m sure you did — there’s another oddball holiday coming up on the calendar this summer you might want to take advantage of.
It’s called Vardavar, and it’s celebrated in July in Armenia in connection with the Christian church’s celebration of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
But Vardavar’s not really a Christian celebration. Instead, its roots are pagan and may be tied to a goddess called Astghik, whose specialties were love and beauty.
How do you celebrate Vardavar? It’s simple, really, and much more sober than Vappu. What you do is dump water on other people.
Young people throw buckets of water through the open windows of buses and cars. Old people dump water from the balconies of their apartments onto passers-by below. It’s intended, theoretically, as a cleansing ceremony. But most Armenians will tell you it’s mostly an excuse for mid-summer horseplay.
By the end of the day, most Armenians will have been wet some time or another. Even the best Vappu hat from Finland won’t ward off a good Vardavar dousing.[[In-content Ad]]
Vappu was Monday, in case you missed it.
Never heard of it? Neither had I until this weekend when I had an e-mail from a friend in Finland.
Salla Nazarenko and her husband Denis live in a city I refer to as “Unpronounceable.” Denis, one of my former translators, is working on his master’s degree at the University of Unpronounceable.
Salla’s a journalist and a native Finn. In fact, before she and Denis got married, her last name was an unpronounceable as the city they live in. (The Finnish language seems to have a surplus of vowels, as far as I can tell.)
Thanks to the Internet, we’ve kept in touch. And this weekend’s e-mail brought Happy Vappu wishes.
May 1 is lots of things, but Vappu was a new one for me, though it’s been around since about 1890.
Turns out, it’s essentially Finnish Labor Day, a local variant of international workers’ day.
But basically, it’s a day for goofing off and eating May Day fritters and drinking way too much homemade mead. Festive Finns also tend to wear a particular hat when they celebrate Vappu, a white cap that looks like something a sailor might wear.
The e-mail was accompanied by a photo of Salla and Denis’s baby daughter looking appropriately festive in a Vappu hat several times too large.
If you missed Vappu — and I’m sure you did — there’s another oddball holiday coming up on the calendar this summer you might want to take advantage of.
It’s called Vardavar, and it’s celebrated in July in Armenia in connection with the Christian church’s celebration of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
But Vardavar’s not really a Christian celebration. Instead, its roots are pagan and may be tied to a goddess called Astghik, whose specialties were love and beauty.
How do you celebrate Vardavar? It’s simple, really, and much more sober than Vappu. What you do is dump water on other people.
Young people throw buckets of water through the open windows of buses and cars. Old people dump water from the balconies of their apartments onto passers-by below. It’s intended, theoretically, as a cleansing ceremony. But most Armenians will tell you it’s mostly an excuse for mid-summer horseplay.
By the end of the day, most Armenians will have been wet some time or another. Even the best Vappu hat from Finland won’t ward off a good Vardavar dousing.[[In-content Ad]]
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