Freeway - Graduation in Sweden

Swedish Traditions
Traditions, what would life be without them, how many different traditions do we have, and how many are typical just for Sweden? Here we have almost one tradition every month, some are small, like the Shrove Day and the first of April when everyone tricks each other. Bigger traditions like Christmas and Midsummer, we almost can’t live without. And now new traditions are introduced, like Halloween from the USA. There are also some which are typical for different parts of the country, like fermented Baltic herring which is a big tradition to eat in August, in the north of Sweden. Why are our traditions so important to us?

Traditions make culture

Because countries have so many different traditions, we would like to explain some Swedish ones for you. They are all not just typical for Sweden but we want to share how we celebrate them in our special way. We have concentrated on four traditions; The Shrove day, Midsummer, All Saints Day and Christmas. Maybe traditions are one thing that make our cultures so different, because all countries have their own special ways to celebrate feasts which can seem strange to an outsider. An example of that is the Swedish tradition to dance around the Midsummer pole, singing and jumping like frogs. But for us, that is an natural thing to do when you celebrate midsummer.

Semmeldagen à Shrove Day - The third Tuesday in February every year the Swedes celebrate the Cream Bun Day. That day you eat a big bun of wheat flour with cream and almond paste. Another word for Cream Bun Day is the Shrove Tuesday. Nowadays the selling of cream buns already start in January, but formerly the cream bun was sold only on the Shrove Tuesday. The Swedish word for cream bun is Semla, it comes from the Latin word Similia, which means "the finest wheat flour". This tradition is very old, it came to Sweden in the 16th century. You can eat the cream bun in many different ways, like a coffee bun or in a deep plate with warm

milk. They are rather expensive to buy, but most people bake them at home.

Midsommar à Midsummer - This is one of our biggest traditions. The holiday always starts on a Friday, and is celebrated in the memory of Johannes the Baptist. They started to celebrate midsummer over 1000 years ago in Sweden, but it was in the honour of the summer solstice. On midsummer you bind flowers in to a garland and then put it on your head. After that you make a maypole with flowers, and they look different around the country. After you have raised it, you dance around it while some musicians play old Swedish’s ring games and dances.

An example of such a song is the little frogs, in Swedish "De små grodorna". The clothes you wear are usually just some thin summer clothes, but in the old days most people wore national costumes. At that time people thought that the Midsummer night was really magical, that the fairies danced that night, while the trolls stood behind the trees and watched. A tradition which lives even today, is that young girls pick seven to nine wild flowers in the evening, and put them under their pillow when they go to bed. Then the tradition says that you are going to dream of your future husband. While you are picking the flowers you are not allowed to speak, and you can’t tell anyone who you dreamt of, because then your dream will not come true. Special midsummer food is fresh potato with herring, sour cream, chives, crispbread and cheese. Swedish strawberries are a usual dessert, and to the food many people drink snaps.

Allahelgonahelgen à Halloween - This is a new tradition in Sweden but All Saints Day, Allahelgona- helgen in Swedish, is an old tradition. It was a day for people to visit their relatives graves at the churchyard and make them nice before the winter. This tradition which started in the Christian church is big even today. The origin of the tradition Halloween is from Ireland, and emigrants took it to the USA and now other countries like Sweden have the tradition too. On Halloween many masquerades are arranged, the children get dressed up like ghosts and other horrifying creatures. Another thing to do, is to cut out horrible faces from pumpkins and put candles in them.

Julen à Christmas - Our biggest and most important tradition is Christmas. Here it’s really popular to send Christmas cards to friends and relatives. The first of December the Christmas window-displays begin and they go on until Christmas day. Everywhere there are brownies and Christmas trees and on the radio you can listen to a lot of Christmas songs. The Christmas spirit is everywhere. Now the Anna-day, the ninth of December is not very important, but earlier it was a day when they had to put the stockfish in water and the Christmas beer should have been ready. But nowadays you often start the baking on that day. The Luciafeast is on the 13 of December, it’s almost as big as Christmas and many girls are competing to become the school or the Lucia o the city. After Lucia the real Christmas cleaning starts, many buy flowers like hyacinths and poinsettias, some put a wreath of fir twigs on their doors. In the windows many hang up an illuminated star and on the walls Christmas decorations.

The Christmas crib is now also taken out, and the days before Christmas Eve many people often make home-made Christmas sweets, like toffee and caramel. The day before Christmas, you boil the ham while you decorate the Christmas tree. After that you put the presents under it, this evening many also make the present rhymes. On Christmas eve in the afternoon, at three o’clock Donald Duck starts on television, watching the program is a really big tradition here. After that Santa Claus comes and hands out the Christmas gifts. In Sweden Santa Claus comes on Christmas Eve but in other countries he comes on Christmas Day. After everyone has got their presents, they dance around the Christmas tree together and sing Christmas songs. Usual food on the Swedish Christmas buffet is sweet boiled rice pudding, ham, stock fish, herring, cheese and thin unleavened bread. Some also eat meatballs, chipolata sausage, liver paste and veal brawn. Many drink the special Christmas beer and the children drink Christmas root beer which is a Swedish invention from the beginning of the 19th century. On Christmas day many rise up early in the morning and go to church, where there is an early service. That’s a morning worship with a lot of candles and songs. In that morning there are many people in church, who usually don’t go there.

Traditions make us Swedes

These were some of our traditions. Do you recognise any of them? Do you celebrate them the same way in your country? Are traditions really so important, maybe we just celebrate them because we always have. Our opinion is that traditions are important, maybe because they make us Swedes and special compared to people from other countries. Some traditions are more important than others for example, what would December be without Christmas? But to eat a cream bun on the Shrove Day is not so important, because it will taste the same if we eat it the day after. One little tradition which is really not so important, is the first of April. When you are allowed to fool anyone you want, and even the newspapers fool people with made up stories. This tradition is just silly but we don’t think anyone wants to be without it. What would the first of April be without all the laughter?

Traditions can be silly, solemn, unnecessary and wonderful. But one thing they always are, and we hope they always will be, important.

One tradition every month in Sweden:

January
February
Mars
April
Mars
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Hilarymas Day. Then it’s time to throw out the Christmas things
The third Tuesday it’s the shrove day
Annunciation Day
Easter
The first may celebration
Midsummer
The vacation month, the late riser day
Crayfish party and fermented Baltic herring
Autumnal equinor, picking berries
There is no one special, but the clock changes to wintertime
All Saints Day
Christmas and New year