International Day for Street Children 2024 is on Friday, April 12, 2024: Finland: what happens on May Day?

Friday, April 12, 2024 is International Day for Street Children 2024. Universal Children's Day‎ It's time to end the worst forms of Child Labour! Read Blog:

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Here is what I found about May Day's celebrations here in Finland:

International patterns can be discerned behind most of our festivities, but these foreign influences have, with time, been moulded into a true Finnish tradition. May Day is a case in point. Finnish Vappu combines such varied influences as the international workers' movement, European celebrations of spring, the traditional springtime revelry of Scandinavian students, the modern street carnival and the Finnish-style enthusiasm for drinking. These ingredients all go to create a truly homespun Finnish carnival. On Vappu, every Finn celebrates the spring regardless of the fact that it may still be snowing...

May Day is internationally known as a "Workers Day". In 1889 "May Day" was chosen as a workers celebration day in the Congress of Paris. On May Day, even today, many strikes and Demonstrations were organised by workers. In the United States 01 May was the day when working contracts were renewed, "moving day", and this automatically caused restlessness among the workers. "May Day" is traditionally a day when political parties and union leaders address "workers", at various central locations. In Finland "May Day" became an official flag- raising day in 1978, and was named "The Day of Finnish Work".

The Finnish name for May Day, "Vappu", originates from Catholic St. Walpurgis, who's commemoration day was celebrated on the 1st of May. In Central-Europe, this day has been celebrated as a festival of spring since medieval times. The first May Day festivities in Finland started in parsonages and upper-class families in the 1700's. At that time people celebrated the day by going horse riding enjoying the greenery of spring, and held "Mead" parties at home together with friends and family. The Finnish May Day celebration, as it is nowadays, was started by secondary school graduates in the 1800's. Even back then the festival was a time of rejoicing and very "Damp" students. Student caps might have been worn from 1st of May until the end of September, but nowadays students and past students wear it on the eve of May Day and on the actual day.

In Finland May Day celebrations begin on May Day Eve. In Helsinki the statue "Havis Amanda", which lies near to the Helsinki market square, receives her white student's cap at six o'clock, at the same time as people put their caps on. This has been a tradition since 1932. Similar ceremonies take place in cities all around Finland, with different statues being "capped". The celebrations have begun and soon a carnival like atmosphere spreads among the normally quite and reserved Finns, who enthusiastically chat and raise their glasses together with persons they have never met before. May Day markets are full of knick-knacks, serpentines (those paper ribbons), flowers, whistles, May Day whisks, balloons and masks for children and childlike adults. Sparkling wines flow and there is spring in the air, and what does it matter if it is snowing, as it sometimes still does at the end of April.

The next day people head for parks to have picnics together with friends and family and brunches served in restaurants are also popular meeting points. Traditional May Day delicacies are fritters called "tippaleipä" and they are served together with homemade mead, "sima".

So, the celebration is just for anybody really! Whereas children may be more interested in noisy whistles, colourful balloons and paper ribbons as well as doughnuts and mead (yes, that is so mild that even children drink it!!), university students focus on partying, boozing and so on!

Does Israel Murder Children?

Thanks you mentioned it. I know that many people don't know this because it's not the media's biggest issue. It's very popular with Israeli soldiers to kill anybody including children and using any way. Not only murder, during the economical boycott the International community has made, the economy of the West Bank was ruined, and as a result many families live now under the line of poverty, and many people can't find jobs, students at universities and even primary school didn't get the proper education this year because the goverment couldn't pay for teachers. Isn't this a crime??

All people around the world saw the 12-year-old boy who was walking with his dad in the streets of Gaza, and saw 2 Israeli soldiers opening fire on him and his father, more than 15 bullets were shot at both of them, the boy died, and the father lived to cry for his son on a wheel chair. I just mentioned it because I think that the Media showed that on TV for few days, then it was forgotten..... and many people around the world still think that IDF doesn't kill civilians...

Israel justifies that by claiming that IDF were exchanging fire with Palestinian militants, and the boy was killed by mistake.... yeah a mistake of 10 bullets.... or maybe the American machine guns which IDF use broke down and started shooting fire unxpectedly..... it could happen... you know U.S weapons are junk!!bullets...

or

See these links, they are just a little example:

i need to know everything this is to know about child soldiers?

'Child soldiers' have been around as long as countries have had militaries.

In ancient days the bigger 3-person chariots had a driver, an archer, and a child-slave with a palm frond - the ancient equivalent to air conditioning. The US civil war had kids with drums instead of a rifle who didn't take part in battles but were still on the front lines with the troops. NAZI Germany dropped enlistment down to kids-age with Hitler Youth children as young as 12 receiving Iron Crosses for going up against Russian T-34 tanks.

In more recent days private army's in Africa employ child soldiers who aren't much bigger than the AK-47s they carry.

Why should we care, crappy way to spend one's youth and it's a form of explotation much like kids working in factories in the olden days.

"Under international law, the participation of children under 18 in armed conflict is generally prohibited, and the recruitment and use of children under 15 is a war crime. Yet worldwide, hundreds of thousands of children are recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and a variety of other armed groups. Often they are abducted at school, on the streets or at home. Others enlist "voluntarily", usually because they see few alternatives.

Such children are robbed of their childhood and exposed to terrible dangers and to psychological and physical suffering. They are placed in combat situations, used as spies, messengers, porters, servants or to lay or clear landmines. Girls in particular are at risk of rape and sexual abuse."

"is the issue being addressed and if so how?"

Yes, but fact is there isn't much that can be done about it.

"Child Soldiers International is an international human rights research and advocacy organisation. We seek to end the military recruitment and the use in hostilities, in any capacity, of any person under the age of 18 by state armed forces or non-state armed groups. We advocate for the release of unlawfully recruited children, promote their successful reintegration into civilian life, and call for accountability for those who unlawfully recruit or use them."