‘Att passa på’ and other Swedish pastimes

Fredrik Lindström

Yesterday, I went to see TV celebrity and academic Fredrik Lindström in his one man stand-up show called ”Swedes are also Humans” where he talks about Swedes and Swedish Culture from an inside-out perspective.

One funny thing he talked about was the Swedish pastime of ‘att passa på’. This translates roughly as ‘taking a chance, grabbing the opportunity’. Fredrik Lindström claimed that Swedes love to ‘passa på’, especially when it comes to sitting outdoors. The slightest bit of nice weather and Swedes ‘passa på’ and sit outside, even it requires a woolly jumper, a thick blanket and an infra-heater. This is quite unlike people who live in sunnier climates. He even said that Swedes are provoked by other Swedes who don’t ‘passa på’ and who choose to sit indoors on a sunny July day to watch re-runs of Falcon Crest on TV4Gold.

You probably had to be there to find it funny…..So, maybe you should ‘passa på’ and go see the show. He’s touring around the country.