Valborg - Sweden's Mardi Gras

One of the biggest holiday of the Swedish year is approaching. Tomorrow is Valborg (Valpurgis for the English speakers). Valborg celebrates the arrival of springtime; the introduction of the month of May. Bonfires are lit, preferably with old furniture or random stuff that people don't need anymore; it is a time for renewal and rebirth. Kids light firecrackers and dare each other to stand close to the fire. However nice and festive that is, the Uppsala-way of celebrating has few, if any, opponents when it comes to Swedish parties. All day drinking (outside, celebrating spring) running around, rejoicing, spraying champagne, barbecuing, fooling around, peeing in the bushes, singing and dancing. It is madness for two whole days (for the hardcore, three), committing every possible pagan heathen sin in celebration. It does not get much better.


Sadly, I cannot say that I have experienced the American Mardi Gras, but from what I know it is the closest comparison I can make it with a U.S. festivity, aside from perhaps St. Patrick's Day. The carnival-like atmosphere, drunkenness, and celebration of sin, is what makes the Swedish Valborg and the American Mardi Gras the cousins of crazy parties, if you will. A time when otherwise suppressed people let go, let loose, let it happen. It is a beautiful thing. I will start it now; meet you in the parks, in the bushes, and other the champagne. Rejoice!