Valborgsmässoafton~Walpurgis Night
Valborg was an English princess who became abbess in Germany.. 
She was a saint for fertility.

The celebration is an old Swedish tradition dating back to the Middle Ages.
We celebrate this day on April 30 when we light big bonfires, join in choral singing 
and this day is a delightful celebration of the end of Winter and welcoming Spring.
In some places a person stands forth and gives a speech.
Many have parties with barbeques and fireworks.

The custom to light bonfires is most common in the middle of Sweden and
 the fire is called valborgsmässoeld, or majbrasa.

In the middle of the 18th century this custom only took place in one landscape
in Sweden and the purpose was to scare the beasts of prey away before letting
the cattle out in the forest.
The Spring songs we sing when we gather around the bonfire is even younger.
Most of them are from the 19th century and was spread by the student´s Spring celebration. 
The students still celebrates it and also "old" students participate.

The oldest tradition for this day is the south Swedish custom to "bring May to village".
In the dusk the youth went out in the forest and cut green branches with which 
they put in the roofs on the village houses, while singing a song filled with wishes
for a delightful Summer. In reward they got eggs. This old custom was on it´s way
to disappear but has been taken up again in some places in Skåne, Blekinge and Halland,
the most southly landscapes in Sweden.

The day after Walpurgis Night is May 1th, the day which has been 
celebrated since 1890 as the worker´s day. It´s celebrated with
demonstration marches, flags and protest posters and singing.
And of course, lots of political speeches.
Many of the participants in the marches are members of the labor unions,
and mostly the democratic and left parties.
This day is a general flag day.

Before this day, May 1th, school kids are selling May Flowers, 
       a little plastic flower to put on and the money from this
   goes to sick and disabled children. It was a lady, Beda Hallberg
        who came up with the idea in  1907 to make this flowers.
About 3 miljoner SEK, $ 300.000, MayFlowers are sold each year.
                        The colors are different for each year.
   To begin with, the money was spent to fight the tuberculosis.

You can see here how the flower looks