The traditional lorry parade – penkkarit – for upper secondary school students preparing to graduate will be postponed to take place after the matriculation examinations in April 2022. The more specific date for the lorry parade will be agreed later together with the upper secondary schools of Helsinki.
The final day of school will be celebrated virtually in the upper secondary schools of Helsinki on 10 February 2022, for example, in the form of a show by the matriculation examination candidates.
The formal dance – vanhojen tanssit – of the second-year students will also be postponed to April–May 2022. For reasons related to booking the venues, the city’s upper secondary schools will decide on the exact date of their dances, and no joint dance date will be agreed for the Helsinki Metropolitan Area or for the City of Helsinki. Students taking part in the formal dance will be involved in the planning of the day.
These measures are necessary to promote the health security of students, staff and citizens and to minimise exposures and infections due to the development of the epidemic for the worse. It is also important to safeguard the implementation of the matriculation examinations on 15 March–1 April 2022. In this connection, the city also reminds the matriculation examination candidates to act responsibly and to stay safe in their leisure time.
The decisions to postpone these events follow the instructions of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Finnish National Agency for Education and the City of Helsinki. The decisions have been made on a precautionary basis and have been prepared together with the Association of independent schools in Finland and the cities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area in January 2022. The formal dances will be postponed in all the cities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, but Vantaa has made a deviating decision as regards the lorry parade and will organise the parade on the traditional date.
Read more: Coronavirus updates from Helsinki
Photo: Maija Astikainen.