Wanhat is the Finnish version of Prom. For wanhat you have a partner and spend months practicing and memorizing the dances up until the big day. The dances are formal traditional Finnish dances (except for the dance that was choreographed by our classmates which was also the dance that was the most fun). I think in total we learned about 12 dances. On the day of the Wanhat most girls woke up between 5 & 6am (me included). We woke up so early to get our hair and makeup done then change into our big puffy dresses and meet at the dancing place around 9:30am. After we took pictures our first dance started. The dance lasted a little over an hour (I think) and there were kids from the middle and elementary school there watching. Then we had a break, then our second time doing the same 12ish dances. After our second time dancing we went to eat lunch and this cute little restaurant. Finally our 3rd time dancing the same 12 dances finally ended, our last time was coming up. This was the best because everyone’s friends and family come to watch this one, everyone knew exactly what to do in each dance, and we could leave to go to the after party after. The 4th and final dance finally ended around 9pm! after dancing all day in heels my feet had never felt worse but I didn’t care because it was after party time!
The wanhat was a lot of fun, it was fun goofing around in all of the practices leading up to the wanhat, and it was fun seeing how beautiful all the girls looked in their dresses and how handsome and the boys looked in their ballroom tuxedos. 
