The Royal Wedding (2)

6.30 pm - Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel,
greeting the People together from the Palace.

Around 500.000 people were gathered on the streets of Stockholm on this day (19 June 2010).

 No mistake about being happy!

  

Crown Princess Victoria speaking to the people.

-♥-♥-♥-

I had not really planned to keep watching the whole evening, but I ended up doing so. It was really quite a unique occasion in many ways. Swedish Television was allowed 10 cameras within the palace, rolling most of the evening. We did not get to watch them eat (four courses) but we got to listen to the speeches, and see the bride cut the wedding cake, and the newlywed couple dance the first waltz. I have to say that they succeeded unusually well in making this whole wedding a celebration for “all the people” and just not for the guests invited. (Not so few. Around 1200 something in the church, and 600 something at the dinner.)

8:15 pm – Arriving to the Wedding Dinner Party

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Eva Westling, mother of the bridegroom.

 
Queen Silvia and Olle Westling, father of the groom.

 
The happy couple surrounded by servants in historical uniforms.

 
The Queen and Prince Daniel’s father 

Princess Madeleine, sister of the bride

 
Prince Carl Philip (brother of the bride),
sitting next to Anna Westling (sister of the groom)

The Table of Honour

Wine being served

 
A glimpse of one of the four courses. 

 
Stockholm at 9.20 pm

  9.50 pm – The King speaking

 
Daughter listening to her father

A Toast

  Stockholm at 10:20 pm

 


10:50 pm - The father of the groom speaking

Son listening to his father

  Stockholm at 11:10 pm

11:23 pm – The Bridegroom speaking

    
Touched and happy bride listening to her husband

The speeches at this wedding were all very good, and with quite a personal touch. One thing that sticks in my memory, is Daniel himself saying that it took more than one kiss to turn him into a prince. (The couple have known each other eight years.)

11:47 pm 
The cutting of the Wedding Cake (a 3 m tall creation)

 
The couple with two of the young bridesmaids

 
Mingling with the guests

 
00:35 am, entering the ball room
ushered in by the Romeo and Juliet Choir
(choir members wearing the red dresses)

 
The First Waltz

 
The King and Queen joining
 

The King now dancing with the mother of the groom,
and the Queen with the father of the groom.

And then, finally, the TV cameras were turned off…

… and phew, this crazy blogger obsessed with taking photos from the TV screen could finally also put her camera down and go to bed …

-♥-♥-♥-

Today’s The Day

I’m flagging today - with the help of my little Scarecrow Gardener (given to me by a friend who knows I like pottering about in a small scale on my balcony).

It is the Big Day for the Royal Family: Crown Princess Victoria getting married to her “frog prince” – her former personal trainer, gym owner and “man of the people” Mr Westling, soon-to-be Prince Daniel.

If you like, you can watch the Finale of yesterday’s Grand Celebration Concert for the happy couple here. (Video from Swedish Television)

… and here is a picture from the newspaper of our Town representative (local politician) carrying the Wedding Gift 1,5 km through streets of Stockholm that had been cut off from traffic (including taxis)… And yes, it was raining!

Here, too, I woke up to rain this morning. 
Remains to be seen whether the sun will be shining or rain pouring down on the royal couple this afternoon. I’ll not be spending the whole day in front of the TV, but I think I will watch the actual wedding ceremony, starting at 3.30 pm.

There are 2315 media people from all over the world keeping watch over the “show”, so I guess where ever you happen to be today, there is probably going to be some mentioning of the event in your news, too.

-♥-♥-

Incidentally, here is another couple that got married on the same date, 56 years ago:

My parents. Small wedding without a lot of “fuss”. They were married nearly 55 years, but did not get to celebrate their 55th anniversary last year. They were parted by the death of my mother on 26 May.

-♥-♥-

6 June – National Day of Sweden

The Swedish flag (this is not my own picture, but the ones below are)

 

 

Our tradition of celebrating 6 June as National Day is not very old. It is said to have begun in 1916, even if the date chosen goes back to the year 1523, when Gustav Vasa was elected king: an event which re-established Sweden as an independent country after having been in union with Denmark and Norway since 1397.

Some later political events in the history of the nation have also taken place on the same date. It was however only as recently as in 2005 that 6 June was proclaimed an official Swedish public holiday – and instead we lost Whit Monday (the Monday after Pentecost), which many people would have preferred to keep, since that always gave a long weekend.

 

This year, 6 June fell on a Sunday, so no extra day off… But it was a beautiful sunny day, and a lot of people gathered for a celebration in the park – with parade, music, singing, speech and flag-waving.

The Swedish National Anthem:

Even though I always have difficulties remembering all the lyrics to our national anthem – and also find them a bit pompous - yet on a beautiful summer day like this, the song can still make my heart swell and bring tears to my eyes…

Here’s a translation I found on the internet:

Thou ancient, thou free,
thou mountainous North,
Thou quiet, thou joyful beauty!
I greet Thee, most beautiful land upon earth!
Chorus:
Thy sun, Thy sky, Thine meadows green!
Thy sun, Thy sky, Thine meadows green!
Thou throne upon memories of great olden days,
When honoured thy name flew over the world,
I know that thou art and wilt be as thou wert!
Chorus:
Yes, I want to live I want to die in the North!
Yes, I want to live I want to die in the North!

You may notice that the song does not even mention “Sweden”, instead it speaks of The North. Attempts have been made from time to time to exchange it for a new one, but no success.

New Year Celebrations

Testing the limits of my little camera last night...
This was taken through the window, after midnight.
(A lucky shot, among a number of less lucky ones!)

I celebrated New Year's Eve with three friends not very keen to be photographed, but I think the cropped picture of the coffee table more or less sums up the evening: Nothing edible was left at the end of the day except for a few apples; and Sherlock will also be able to deduct that the TV and DVD-player were used! (remote controls on the table) This year's film was Miss Potter, about the life of artist and storyteller Beatrix Potter. (Read more about her at http://www.peterrabbit.com/)

This was actually the 10th New Year's Eve in a row spent together with the same three friends, or at least two of them. Back when we started the tradition, we all lived in the same building; except the fourth member of the party, sister of one of the others, who lives in another town, but is usually visiting here for New Year. For the last ten years we've always been at my place and this was the second time in my "new" flat.

There were fireworks and explosions outside all night long as usual, with a crescendo during the hour around midnight. It's still a bit quieter here than it was at my old place.   

The last time I was at a really BIG New Year's Party was the Millenium.
Can hardly believe a whole decade has actually passed by since then!