Tag: celebration

‘Pingis’ in Sweden

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

Yesterday, Sweden qualified for the final in team table tennis at the Paris Olympics. This is following the unexpected silver won by Truls Möregård in table tennis singles. And table tennis fans up and down Sweden are going crazy!

Table Tennis, or Ping Pong as it is also called – a name originating from the Mandarin Ping Pang Qiu – has the nickname ‘pingis’ in Swedish. It is a very popular sport in Sweden, with the first game played in the 1890’s, and the first Swedish championship organised in 1925.

Although elite table tennis is generally dominated by the Chinese, Sweden has had some success over the years. Probably the best Swedish player through history is Jan-Ove Waldner. Known as ‘The Evergreen Tree’ in China, Waldner had an extraordinary successful and long career. He won a total of 20 Gold, 17 Silver and 9 Bronze medals in the Olympics, World and European Championships. Jörgen Persson, Kjell Johansson, Marie Svensson and Stellan Bengtsson are other successful ping pong athletes.

On a non-elite level, the game of ‘rundpingis’ is popular in Sweden. This is knock-out ping pong played in large groups where people run around the table and hit one shot each. Another popular pastime is outdoors table tennis, with many parks building tables and nets out of weather-proof iron.

So, if you feel inspired by the current Olympic successes, grab a racket and go play a round of table tennis. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the next pingis star in pingis heaven!

Sweden at the Olympics

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

Yesterday, Sweden won its first medal at the Paris Olympics – a bronze in Judo.

For a relatively small country, Sweden often does quite well at the Olympics. In the 2020 Tokyo games, 9 medals were won. The most medals Sweden has ever won was in 1912 in Stockholm and 1920 in Antwerp where the athletes won a staggering 64 medals, each time. In London in 1944, a neat 44 medals were won.

Sweden is one of the 14 original countries to participate in the modern Olympics since its beginning in 1896, and has participated every time since then. The one exception is 1904 in St Louis.

The most successful Swedish summer Olympian of all time is Gert Fredriksson, a canoeist who has won 6 gold medals. In the world, the most gold medals have gone to swimmer Michael Phelps who has won a staggering 23 golds! The next best are Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi and Americans Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz, each with 9 gold medals.

From a historical country perspective, the USA has the most gold medals: a total of 1,179, according to the Olympic Foundation. Following is the now-disbanded Soviet Union, with 473 gold medals.  Germany takes third, with 342 gold medals. 

Great Britain, France, Italy, China, Sweden and Norway have all won more than 200 gold medals apiece, according to the Olympic Foundation.

This year in Paris, Sweden is realistically hoping to bring home 12 medals, in disciplines such as pole vault, discus, swimming, dressage, volleyball, handball, and sailing.

The judo bronze was unexpected – so let’s see what other surprises Paris might bring.

Swedish politics week – a summer tradition

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

Once a year, with exception of the two pandemic years, there is a summer politics week in Sweden. The week is happening now. It takes place in a park called Almedalen on the Baltic island of Gotland, and attracts heavy media coverage.

During the week, the leaders of the eight parliamentary parties deliver speeches – their view of Sweden’s challenges and future.

The Almedalen politics week started when legendary Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme spoke publicly, from the back of a truck, during a summer visit to Gotland. It was at the end of the 60s and there was an audience of a few hundred people. It very quickly became a tradition.

Now Almedalen politics week attracts thousands of participants and is intended to involve the person on the street in politics and to protect the strong Swedish value of democracy and free speech. The idea is that at Almedalen politics week, we meet each other in debate. And in debate and discussion, we influence each other and our environment. This is an amazing, and very Swedish, approach to politics.

However, Almedalen Politics Week has also been heavily criticized for being elitist. Accommodation is, for example, very difficult to find, and expensive to book. The event has also become a popular opportunity for businesses to promote themselves by meeting, networking and partying with each other and engaging in media stunts. And writing it off as a marketing initiative.

Some people go to Almedalen only for this purpose and not to participate in any political activities. Social media is every year awash with images of participants mingling, drinking rose wine, partying, dancing and taking drunken groupies.

This is of course a provocation for many Swedes who perceive Politics Week as a week to enact change, and not to party and mingle. With this expanded version of Almedalen Politics Week, the question becomes is it still a platform for democracy or has it been watered-down by all of the ballyhoo?

Happy Midsummer!

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

It’s finally arrived – Midsummer’s Eve – this most Swedish of all traditions. Today, friends and families gather to eat, drink and be merry. As you may have read in previous posts this week, this festivity is strongly connected to history, fertility, light and tradition.

Music is an important part of the day. All around the area, a lot of classic summer songs drift out from various loud speakers. The day often starts with gentle, folk-oriented music, and ends up with Swedish dance band and Eurovision pop.

To celebrate the day, I have made a Spotify playlist of the songs that I associate with Midsummer. For me, they are Sweden. Have a listen if you are interested.

Oh, and Glad Midsommar! 🌸🌸🌸

Swedish Midsummer – food and drink

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

Swedish Midsummer celebrates abundance and as such, a great deal of food and drink is consumed. After guests arrive and have their first drink(s), the wreaths start to get made, the potatoes peeled, strawberries topped and the maypole gets decorated with flowers and leaves. Once erected, and danced around, it’s time for lunch.

As far as drinking goes, ‘nubbe’, or snaps, is a common tipple accompanied by traditional drinking songs and washed down with beer. A popular brand of snaps is OP Anderson which is flavored with aniseed and fennel and is 40% proof. The drink has been around for 130 years on the market – the first snaps being sold in 1891! Another popular nubbe , the Danish Jubileums, is 40% proof and tastes of dill, coriander and bitter orange. There are also small-sized bottles than can be bought in fun packages that have a mixture of flavorings.

When it comes to the food, in the evening it has become popular in recent years to have a barbecue. But it is at lunch time when the traditional food is consumed, with a Midsummer smorgasbord (buffet).

On this buffet, it is common to find various types of pickled herring, soused herring, boiled new potatoes, gravlax with ‘hovmästare’ sauce, smoked salmon, Västerbotten cheese pie, crisp bread and mature cheese, chopped herbs, red onion, egg halves, ‘silltårta’ (herring cake), various sauces and mixes, fresh and smoked shrimps, fish roe.

As you can imagine, this food is very rich and fatty, which is why it is usually eaten together with the alcoholic snaps.

For dessert, the only thing to eat are Swedish strawberries and cream or a home-made strawberry cake. Anything else would be sacrilege. Some families also eat rhubarb pie.

After lunch, bolstered by the snaps, it’s usually time for garden games, a walk in the woods or a quick dip in the not-quite-yet-warm-enough lake or sea.

If the party lasts really late into the night, then there can also be a ‘vickning’. This is a ‘midnight meal’ designed to sober up drunk guests. It often includes some leftovers from the day, or can also be a very welcome hot dog. 🌭

Why is May 1st celebrated in Sweden?

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

In Sweden, and 160 other countries, May 1st is International Workers’ Day. Sweden has been celebrating it since 1939.

But why specifically May 1st?

The answer is found in a massacre in the USA. On 1 May 1886, laborers in Chicago went out on strike for an 8 hour working day. On 4 May 1886, the Chicago police force and the demonstrators clashed in a physical conflict. Eleven people died.

The event is called the Haymarket Massacre. Seven of the demonstrators were sentenced to death, despite lack of evidence. To commemorate the massacre, the socialist organization suggested that 1 May should become day of demonstrations every year around the world. Ironically, USA does not follow this tradition, but celebrates their Labour Day in September instead.

In Sweden, traffic is shut off, huge flag-waving demonstrations are held and people gather to hear political speeches.

The demonstrations represent people from various parties. However, since most of them are from the political left, the streets are awash with bright red flags and banners.

Not all Swedes demonstrate of course. For many, today is just a day off work – an opportunity to perhaps nurse a hangover from the festivities of the previous evening or to relax, go for a walk and enjoy the day.

Walpurgis Eve – when spring arrives in Sweden

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

Today, 30 April, is Walpurgis Eve, called Valborgsmässoafton in Swedish, or ‘Valborg’ for short. The name Walpurgis is taken from the eighth-century Saint Walburga, and in Sweden this day marks the arrival of spring.

In a cold, dark country like Sweden, residents have suffered through a long, miserable winter. So it is no surprise that the arrival of spring is an occasion to mark. On the evening of Valborg, Swedes usually gather to celebrate together.

The forms of celebration vary in different parts of the country and between different cities. However, essential celebrations include lighting a large bonfire, listing to choirs singing traditional spring songs and a speech to honour the arrival of the spring season. Some of the traditional spring songs are titled ‘Beautiful May – Welcome!’ and ‘Longing for the countryside – winter rushes out’. You can see a clip below.

Walpurgis bonfires are an impressive thing to see and are part of a Swedish tradition dating back to the early 18th century. At Walpurgis, cattle was put out to graze and bonfires lit to scare away predators.

The weather is often unpredictable on Walpurgis Eve. It can be sunny and warmish, or it can still snow on 30 April!

Despite bad weather, Swedes still shiver around the bonfires and ironically celebrate the arrival of Spring.

Why Swedes celebrate on the ‘afton’ (eve)

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

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 that period, a new day began at sunset rather than at midnight as it does now. In the Medieval times there was an expression – ‘vid kväll ska dag leva’ – which means something like ‘in the evening, shall the day live.’

Scandinavians held onto this tradition even after clocks were invented, and this is why they celebrated their important days the evening before. Now the evenings have, for practicalities sake, become day time activities.

That’s why Swedes celebrate on the ‘Afton’. Oh yeah, and for the extra day off work.

‘Long’ Friday in Sweden

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

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 Golgotha. Fish was also the only food that historically was available for people to eat in Sweden at this time of the year.

In English, this day used to also be called Long Friday, but at some point in history it changed to Good Friday. Good in this context means Holy.

A witchy pink Thursday in Sweden

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

easterwitchmooon

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 he washed them clean – a symbolic metaphor for purification and the washing away of sin.

So, today isn’t Pink Thursday – it’s Clean Thursday. In fact, in English ‘Maundy Thursday’ also relates to the same act in the bible – the act of ritual cleaning is known an The Maundy.

However, in Sweden, today isn’t that much about washing feet – it’s more about witchcraft!

Today is celebrated by children dressing up as witches, rather like we do in the UK and USA on Halloween. Children go door to door in their outfits begging for sweets. This tradition originates from the belief centuries ago that the Skärtorsdag was the night of the witches, where these wicked hags would climb onto their broomsticks and fly to a mountain called Blåkulla. It was a night of danger and evil, and Swedish people would bar their doors to their houses and barns and leave outside gifts that would make the witches’ journey easier – food, milk, clothes, broomsticks. Today, that translates into the Swedish version of trick or treating.

paskkarringar-2-700x528

So if you celebrate by cleaning, or by dressing up as a witch or by eating candy – you’ll be kicking off your Easter the Swedish way!