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It's Palm Sunday and all over Oulu, children are ringing neighbours' doorbells. Bastian Fähnrich and photographer Vladislaw Josiek accompany Anna Gokkoeva, Anna Lahti, and Emmi Peedo as they chant, give gifts, and get sweets.

‘Virpominen’ or ‘virpoa,’ a stand-out Finnish Easter tradition, takes place a week before Easter, on Palm Sunday. ‘Easter witches’, children in scarves and checkered dresses, go from door to door. Neighbours, friends, and relatives receive brightly-feathered willow sprigs, and the children perform chants. The Finnish verb ‘virpoa’ comes from the Russian ‘verba’ meaning ‘willow.’ It has its root in the Latin ‘verbanae,’ or ‘holy branches’.

According to the Finnish Literature Society, ‘virpominen’ originates in Karelian Orthodox religious customs. Karelia, located mostly around Lake Ladoga, belonged in part to Finland before World War II, but is nowadays Russian territory. As early as 200 years ago, Karelians would ‘virpoa’ on Palm Sunday, the date commemorating when Jerusalem greeted Jesus with palm branches on the road. Instead of palm branches, Karelians gave each other willow sprigs, wished each other luck, and were rewarded with Easter eggs, sweets, or even money.

World War II Karelian evacuees brought ‘virpominen’ into Finland after a peace treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union. It merged gradually with the then Finnish and Swedish tradition of children walking around between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, disguised as witches and ‘trullit’ (trolls). This played with the old idea that, with Jesus in his tomb, evil figures were free to move and haunt people.