Valborg Pictures

Not Valborg, but... Easter tradition in the Czech Republic. Boys are supposed to get young branches from trees, plait them together and beat girls with them, while saying a rhyme. This is to wish the girls health and luck for the coming year. And the girls in return give the boys sweets and chocolates. Elsewhere in Poland and Hungry, boys throw water at girls for the same reason. Picture from postcard Maru received from her grandmother.

30 April 2006 - Sunrise; 0530hrs.

30 April 2006 - First Valborg Boat. If you draw an imaginary vertical line down from the boat, you'll see Mattias, a German I met here in Uppsala. Next to him in the green jacket is Mary from Finland.

30 April 2006 - Banana Boat Throwing Bananas to the Spectators.

30 April 2006 - No man is an island.

30 April 2006 - Boat Fight!

30 April 2006 - Piranha?

30 April 2006 - Carrying the cross.

30 April 2006 - The 'King and Queen' of Sweden.

30 April 2006 - Last Valborg boat to come down the river. The detachable raft. The sides are too high for the boat to pass under bridges, so they remove them when nearing bridges and place them back when they have safely passed the obstruction. Pardon the signboard. I wanted to make a video of them passing under the bridge.

And the poor boats, upon reaching the end, get chopped up into little pieces and thrown away.



30 April 2006 - Crowd walking towards the cap waving ceremony.

30 April 2006 - Cap Waving (Public).

30 April 2006 - Cap Waving (Important University People).

30 April 2006 - Distinguished Looking Nation Members at the Cap Waving Ceremony.

30 April 2006 - The Famous White Cap (Modelled by Eleanor).

30 April 2006 - Valborg Crowd at the Hat Waving Ceremony.

30 April 2006 - Trash, trash everywhere. On the slopes leading to the Castle.

30 April 2006 - Choir wearing the white hats.

30 April 2006 - Bell Tower and Banners at Castle.