May Day / Vappu

May Day (or Vappu in Finnish) is a bank holiday in Finland and traditionally a day spent at picnics, watching parades and listening to political speeches. For a long time there hasn’t been anything going on in our town with everyone going to the nearest city to experience the crowds. This year however the local businesses organized some activities in what passes for our town square (a piece of dirt in the center of town that is owned by too many different parties).

I was there showing the colors of the fire department. Luckily we managed to avoid hearing any political speeches, but we did have to endure some karaoke. Some historic cars and modern bikes came to be shown in addition to the vendors.

And one of our local characters, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator made an appearance. As he always does when a crowd gathers in town.