Weekend 5: Crayfish party

In Finland there is a ritual celebration known as the Crayfish Party, known in Finnish as Rapujuhlat and in Finnish translated to English sometimes as "the crab feast". It turns out to actually not be that different than a regular crab-eating picnic you might have in the Chesapeake Bay area, except in this case the crabs are really really small, bear some resemblance to insects, and to have very little meat within them that qualifies as food.

For our work party they rented out a nearby villa so everyone could take a traditional sauna prior to the eating festivities. Even the setting for eating these little critters differs -- a combination of formality and paper bibs.

Given how many of the pesky things you have to eat to feel remotely placated, the dining process takes a while. To ease things along, you have a wide assortment of beverages at your disposal, including Koskenkorva, a dry Finnish Vodka drunk at toasts.

Perhaps as a result of much Koskenkorva drinking, or perhaps also from happy Nordic tradition, there is also much singing at Crayfish parties. One person starts and then everyone else (who speaks Finnish or Swedish) joins in to a rousing chorus of songs that appear to be about anything and everything. And then the eating and drinking continue. All in all, much fun, particularly when the crayfish are gone and they let you hit the buffet where the real food was secreted away.