![All Smiles](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/943/41091324164_7f460f4603_c.jpg)
![Valborgsmässoafton](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/974/41091264924_5c570d65ee_c.jpg)
![Kyrkbacken](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/912/27939645538_19ef0849c6_c.jpg)
![No hedgehog was killed in this bonfire](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/828/26939784847_91f1aef50b_c.jpg)
![Valborgsmässoafton](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/979/40000960280_db5f8cec82_c.jpg)
![Candy](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/979/40000821530_2150d03820_c.jpg)
![Brandman](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/826/26940105357_e412950fa3_c.jpg)
![Valborg](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/865/41808534951_aca006293b_c.jpg)
![Walpurgis Ewe](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/871/41808480101_268f68264c_c.jpg)
![Enjoying a cold one](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/871/41808395371_56898fdbd3_c.jpg)
We celebrated the arrival of Spring today. That is what Valborgsmässoafton/Walpurgis Night stands for in this country. Thousands of bonfires burn all over Sweden as people gather around the fires talking and drinking. A choir sings a few songs about Spring as the kids run around or eat candy. I stopped at two such bonfires this cold and very windy Walpurgis Night. The fire in Tungelsta had already burned out when I got there on the Steel Horse so I pedalled five kilometres against the strong wind to the bonfire at Kyrkbacken in Västerhaninge where a few hundred people had gathered, including a couple of fire-fighters that kept an eye on the big bonfire. The fire was moved the evening before to give the local hedgehogs a chance to survive. The church in the background is the Medieval church in Västerhaninge.