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Hyvää Vappua - Happy May Day!

In Finland, Vappu, Labour Day or internationally known as 1st of May is traditionally in Finland, a holiday for workers and nowadays more and more for students. It is a celebratory day of the white high school graduation caps. Nowadays people also wear their trade school or academic graduation hats on Vappu Day, when going out and it can be also worn on the eve, 30th April as well.

On May Day, people gather in different cities and towns in Finland to put hats or some other clothes on statues as well, a tradition that was initially started by engineering students in Helsinki. 

Statues in Finland who are officially given the white hat on May Day: 

• Helsinki: Manta aka. Havis Amanda
• Jyväskylä: Minna Canth statue
• Kajaani: Elias Lönnrot statue
• Oulu: Franz Mikael Franzén statue
• Tampere: Suomen neito statue
• Turku: Lilja statue

Traditional Finnish mead, sima recipe, as by Martat 

1. Wash the lemons in hot water and peel the yellow part with a knife. Avoid peeling the white part as it is bitter.
2. Remove the white part of the peel from the lemons and cut the flesh into slices.
3. Put the lemon slices, the yellow part of the lemon peel and the sugars in a bowl.
4. Heat half of the amount of water to boiling and pour over the sugars and lemon.
5. Stir. Let it stand for a while under the lid so that the sugar has dissolved.
6. Add the rest of the cold water.
7. Add yeast when the broth is lukewarm (+37). Avoid liquid that is too warm so that the yeast does not stop working.
8. Leave the mead under the lid at room temperature for one day. The mead is starting to ferment.
9. Put a few raisins and 1 teaspoon of sugar in clean, well washed bottles
10. Strain the mead and pour into bottles. Use a scoop and a funnel to help with bottling.
11. Cap loosely, or open caps every day to avoid explosion of bottlers as the fermentation can produce a lot of gas inside them! 
12. Take the bottles to a cool place. Follow the fermentation as explained on point 11.When the fermentation has stopped or almost stopped, you can close the caps more firmly.

The sima is ready when the raisins have risen to the surface. This takes about a week in the cold or about three days at room temperature.

Tip: Try seasoning the sima to your liking. For example: Replace the second lemon with grapefruit or red grapefruit or two limes. Before pouring the boiling water, add some fresh mint to the sugar and lemons. With grapefruit, you can also try two sprigs of rosemary as a spice. Enjoy well chilled!

Hyvää Vappua! 

Minna, OLS Community Manager – Finnish