In the UK, we celebrate ‘Days’ such as Christmas Day & Easter Day. In Sweden, these days are the bank holidays but there is also a tradition of celebrating on the Eve. In fact, it is the Eve ( ‘afton’) that is the big celebration time. Yesterday, for example, was Easter Eve and it is typically yesterday that families meet for the big meal with the traditional food. There’s påskafton, Valborgsmässoafton, Midsommarafton, julafton, nyårsafton, trettondagsafton. Why is this? Surely it can’t just be to get extra holiday? Well, actually it originates from a time before the mechanical clock. In ..read more

Today, Good Friday, is called ‘Long Friday’ in Swedish – ‘Långfredag’. It commemorates the long day and the long suffering that Jesus endured on the cross, according to Christian teachings. It is a public holiday, and for many years, everything was closed in Sweden making the day deliberately long and boring for many people. Now, most things are open. ‘Long Friday’ is a day of cooking, shopping and going for walks. Some people attend church services. For traditionalists, salted fish is the food of the day – such as salted herring or salted salmon. This symbolises the thirst that Jesus felt on ..read more

Today is ‘Maundy Thursday’ in English and in Swedish it has the unusual name of ‘Skärtorsdag’. The word ‘skär’ means ‘pink’. But does that make today Pink Thursday? Actually not. The word ‘skär’ has another meaning that might be more relevant – ‘clean’ – and it is a biblical reference. If you know your bible stories, today being the day before Good Friday is the day when Jesus gathered his disciples together for the Last Supper, introduced communion, and was later betrayed by Judas, and condemned to death on the cross. Prior to the Last Supper, Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. And ..read more

So Sweden is now an official member of NATO, the military defense alliance. As the 32nd country to join the alliance, Sweden will be protected under Article 5 – the ultimate guarantee of allie’s freedom and security. To the outside world, this might not be that significant. But for Sweden, March 7th 2024 is a day that will be recorded as one of the most momentous in history. By becoming a member of NATO, Sweden ends over 200 years of official non alignment. This neutrality stretched back to the Napoleonic wars. Sweden joining NATO was inconceivable just over two years ago, and the Swedish pop ..read more

Tomorrow, the world’s longest cross country ski race takes place in Sweden. Called Vasaloppet, it entails participants skiing 90 kilometers from start to finish. It’s an extremely popular international race, which can take up to 12 hours to complete, and which is broadcast live on tv. When tickets to participate are released, they sell out in 15 minutes – it’s that popular. The first Vasalopp was in 1922 and it takes place annually, the first Sunday in March and it is an early sign of spring.  It’s an amazing sight to watch, as more than 15,000 mad, happy skiers glide along – the swishin ..read more

A massive amount of snow has landed in Sweden, so I thought it’s worth sharing this list again. Not surprisingly when living in a country where it snows a lot, people start to see differences and nuances in the type of snow, whereas in English the word might just be an unsatisfactory ‘snow’. The Swedish language makes it easy to join words together to describe these nuances. Here is a list of 50 Swedish words related to snow. 1) Blötsnö – wet, slushy snow 2) Drivsnö – snow that is blown into troublesome snow drifts 3) Aprilsnö – snow in April, according to superstition, signifies plenty of fo ..read more

Today – 13 January – is the official last day of Christmas in Sweden. Known as ‘Tjugondedag jul’ (twentieth day of Christmas) or ‘tjugodag Knut’ (twentieth day Knut), it marks the twentieth, and final, day of the festive season. The name ‘Knut’ comes from the fact that today is St Knut’s Day in Sweden – commemorating the Danish king who was assassinated in 1131. One of laws that Knut introduced was that nobody should fast during twenty days of Christmas, and that January 13 was the official end of the period. In Sweden, today is the day when Christmas should be ‘danced out’. Traditionally, th ..read more

With all the frozen lakes at the moment, I am reminded of the Swedish expression ‘Det är ingen ko på isen’ or ’there’s no cow on the ice’. This expression is used to mean there is ‘ no need for worry’ or ‘don’t be concerned’. So, where does the expression originate? Well, like many Swedish expressions, this one also has a rural origin. In the old days, farmers that had no running water would take their cows down to the lake to drink. As long as the cows stayed on land, and didn’t venture onto the frozen waters, there was no risk of them falling through the ice and drowning. In fact, the expres ..read more

In English, when we suspect something isn’t quite right we ‘smell a rat’ or say something is ‘fishy’. In Swedish, they suspect ‘owls in the moss’. The expression – ‘att ana ugglor i mossen’ – has a Danish origin. The original saying dates to the 1600’s and was ‘det är ulve i mosen’ which translates as ‘there’s a wolf in the moss’. The expression makes sense and was used when a dangerous situation was suspected. So, how did a wolf turn into an owl? There are two theories. One theory is that it happened as a mistake. The sound of the Danish word for wolf ‘ulve’ was misheard as ‘uggla’ the word f ..read more

Today, 6 January, is a national holiday in Sweden and in many places around the world. In Sweden, not a lot happens on this day – it is just another day off. If it lands on a weekend, as it does this year, the bank holiday is forfeited, unlike in many other countries where the following Monday is taken off in lieu. So what does the 6 January celebrate? In orthodox churches, the 6 January is celebrated as the day of Jesus’ birth. In western Christianity, the 6 January notes the arrival of the three wise men (the magi) to Bethlehem to visit the baby Jesus in his cradle. These wise men are said t ..read more