A little info from Wikipedia: Walpurgis Night is a traditional Pagan holiday, Roman Catholic Saint's day, and Satanic holiday celebrated on April 30 or May 1 in large parts of Central and Northern Europe.
The current festival is in most countries celebrating it named after Saint Walpurga, born in Devonshire about 710. Due to her holy day falling on the same day, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walpurga was honored in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration. Early Christianity had a policy of 'Christianising' pagan festivals so it is perhaps no accident that St. Walpurga's day was set to May 1st.
To travel from Stockholm to Turku, Finland where we'd be celebrating, we took the Viking Line (AKA party ferry). What's really nice is that ferry travels through the archipelago that borders Stockholm to the east.
These were taken on the first day of celebration, which involved a lot of champagne!
Another colleague, Michael, that I always tease about going to his local community college (D.Phil from Oxford).
These are from the second day. The decrease in activity is recognizable and is due to the previous heavy evening of partying. Getting some sun and having a picnic was quite nice though.
These were taken while walking around Turku.
These were taken at a public sauna. What a bargain at 4 Euros per person. The temperature inside the sauna was 70C (160F) then we ran and jumped into the lake which was supposedly 13C (55F), but it felt much, much colder as can be easy seen from these photos!
