#valborg

[talesofheresy]

Swedish Valborg (Walpurgis Night) have been celebrated since pagan times. This is from a few years back

[dagenssvenska]

Bild från Valborg på Skansen igår 🔥

[jinxedbirdoy]

Hyvää vappua! Glad valborg! Have a good vappu, everyone!

[freyjaofthenorth]

the borg is val'd

[young-royals-confessions]

When I first watched YR, I loved the hallway scene more.

Now, the way Wille doesn't really follow up about how Simon's doing when he says he doesn't really feel free to enjoy and sing from the heart anymore bothers me.

And after they have sex Simon seems so pensive and subdued, and Wille is tender, but he also doesn't really read the room.

(I get it. They're 16. Still...)

It's beautiful to see them connected and playful and giggling and in sync, but now when I watch I also see Simon's sadness and withdrawal shot through the whole sequence.

[edmarconfessional]

Happy Valborg! 🥰

[h4ganah]

It is the worst day of the year baby!! 🥳 because half of Sweden pours into my city to celebrate Valborg. A.k.a. everyone gets as drunk as humanly possible, light massive fires, and decide to be fucking everywhere. An autists fucking nightmare.

[besvikna-snusmumriken]

Glad/Trevlig Valborg! / Glada Vappen / Hauskaa Vappua!

Well they can only have limited time to celebrate that bonfire over there before that approaching gliding iceberg at the horisont extinguish it!

I know this was late and rushed with this again. I will revisit this image in next year and make a better version. It was intended to be more crowded but didn't have much time. I ate and drank (water) too much that it started to hurt and feel sick during this holiday.

I honestly actually don't have much knowledge other than throw large bonfires to scare off wild predators, witches and evil spirits meanwhile our current King Carl XVI Gustaf just happened to have his birthday too. It tend to variate a lot between locations. Also this seems to be holidays for students going crazy as well. In Helsinki it seems to be more of a carnival. In Nordic countries however, Saint Walpurga had lost significance beyond the name only like so many other holidays. However many traditions in the Nordic countries either have pre-Christian origin (Yule goats at Nordic Yule/Christmas) or was recently developed (like that bizarre Kalle Anka [Donald Duck] tradition on Swedish Yule/Christmas).

Anyway I just grew up with celebrating Valborg by just stare at a bonfire in silence for what it felt like hours like a bored primitive tribe and nothing more. Sometimes there's fireshows, fireworks, market and songs. Where I grew up, First May is synonymous with Valborg. This time I just traveled a lot between festivals and celebrated on different places and tortured my stomach and bladder.

This is the only holiday known for bonfires in Sweden as I'm aware of but it seems like bonfires are more common in Finland elsewhere (or at least the Swedish-speaking regions like where Tove Jansson came from as reflected in Mumin). Other older Finnish traditions/rituals can be seen in Farlig midsommar.

April was a very stressful month for me.

One of various images inspired by my artwork. Early draft of the carnival scene of Vem ska trösta Knyttet? [Who will comfort Toffle?] with the Mymla-like figure who was close with Tooticki was originally intended to be Tove Jansson's own avatar from her and Tuulikki Pietilä's private journals! Emma Klingenberg's Detta är min målarsång 2025 identifies them two as Knyttet [Toffle] and Skruttet [Miffle] which I don't know if that's actually true since that would mean the whole carnival scene from the start would originally be at the end where these two would have met. Or Emma just have misidentified just like Skatter från Mumindalen 2024 have misidentified young Muminpappan and Joxaren as Mumintrollet and Snusmumriken [Snufkin] on the ghost introduction illustration comparison.