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.

Upwards and Onwards

Tomorrow is Ascension Day in the Christian churches, in memory of Christ’s ascension into heaven. This day is still a holiday in Sweden. It is always celebrated 40 days after Easter, on a Thursday. (Those who can, often take the Friday off from work too, to get a long weekend.)

I had a post on this day last year, entitled Ascension and Attention. Follow the link if you’re interested in finding out why we also associate this day with the cuckoo.

This year, Ascension Day is not very likely to tempt a lot of people to rise from their bed early and go out for a picnic breakfast. At least not around where I live. I suspect even the cuckoo might prefer a sleep-in. In spite of my screen name, I definitely will… Wednesday we’ve had heavy rain all day and only around +5°C (41°F).

---

‘I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.’  - Jesus in the Gospel of John, 16:28

‘The farther up and the farther in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside.’  - C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

Photo: Looking up a hill, the ground covered with wood anemones. © DawnTreader 2010

Easter Cards

     

Regular readers will remember that I visited a scrapbooking trade fair the other weekend.

I found use for some of my purchases, as well as my own photos, in making Easter cards to send to some friends. From my post about our Easter Decorations you will now also know that the colourful feathers belong in our Easter traditions.

Sending Easter cards is another tradition, although not by far as common as sending Christmas cards.

Wishing all of you

♥ Happy Easter! ♥

 

~ Monica ~

Tourist Advice

The other day, I got an email from someone I don't know; not even by blog. It did not seem to be spam, and it contained a polite enough request: The writer is planning to go to Sweden and wants some touristing tips. Now, I'm not a Tourist Office, and therefore feel a bit hesitant to reply personally to a request "out of the blue" like that. But I thought I might make a blog post out of it...

Besides wanting to "see the world", the email writer claims to be interested in biking, swimming and dancing. This in itself tells me that this person has not been doing very thorough research into my blogs before asking my advice!

Fact: I have not been on a bicycle in ten years. No, sorry - eight years. My last very brief attempt was on a holiday in 2002. Not successful from neck-pain aspect. The last (and only) time I went on a longer biking adventure was 34 years ago. And that was fun only because of the company!

Fact: I have not set foot in a lake or sea in ten years either. Well, possibly my feet - but definitely not my whole body. Having got used to gentle exercises in an indoor rehab pool heated to 33°C, everything else seems too cold now!

Fact: The last time I "went dancing" was... 38 years ago, at a disco in England! [laughing out loud here] I may also have walked around a Swedish midsummer pole a few times in my twenties, but that's it. Not my kind of entertainment.

So what advice could I give? Only of a very general kind:

First, if you're not into winter sports, go in the summer. Our main tourist season is between mid June to mid August. May or September can be fine too, and less crowded; but you might also find many typical tourist places closed.

If you want entertainment and city life, go to our capital, Stockholm, beautifully situated on the East coast; or our second biggest city, Göteborg (Gothenburg), beautifully situated on the West Coast. If you like sandy beaches, go to Skåne (South) or Halland (West coast south of Gothenburg). If you prefer rocky shores, try Bohuslän (West coast North of Gothenburg). For old stone age tombs and medeival abbey ruins and churches, go to Västergötland. (Västergötland and the Stockholm area compete about which best deserves to be called the true "cradle of Sweden".) If you want midnight sun and mountains, travel far up north to Lapland. If you want forests and lakes, but don't want to go too far north, I suggest Värmland, or Småland. (I'm naming provinces rather than towns.)

Here's a link to a Travel Guide web page I found.
Quite amusing to read about one's own country seen from a foreign tourist's point of view. This page I find pretty accurate though (and with some nice pictures), even if their selection of noteworthy things (like my own!) might be a bit random. Quote:

Downsides:
- It can get chilly, or wet, or both, even in mid-summer.
- Endless tree views can be sooo monotonous.
- Swedish cuisine is healthy and hearty but hardly entertaining.

They must have gone about by car a good deal, because further down the page they repeat:

Self-driving in Sweden is, frankly, often slow and dull [unless you have a passion for endless forest] while city parking is difficult.

"Endless tree views can be sooo monotonous"

(My own picture from February 2010)

Quotation of the Week (21/09)

Hither and thither through the meadows he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting - everything happy, and progressive, and occupied. And instead of having an uneasy conscience pricking him and whispering "Whitewash!" he somehow could only feel how jolly it was to be the only idle dog among all these busy citizens. After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.


Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows