Tag Archives: sweden

Valborg

Nationality: Swedish
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 8, 2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Swedish

My friend was born in Sweden to a Swedish father and American mother, but moved to the United States as a child, so she sat down with me and told me about the different holidays that are celebrated in Sweden. Some were holidays she had celebrated frequently, while some she hadn’t personally celebrated. Since Valborg is celebrated primarily by college students, she wasn’t old enough to celebrate it when she lived in Sweden, but she was still aware of the customs.

“On April 30th, there’s a celebration called Valborg, which dates back to the Vikings, and basically all of Sweden, they light up bonfires along the coast and it starts in Upsalla and goes all the way up. It’s basically done by all the students and they have boat races and barbecues. It’s basically to celebrate the pagan flower goddess, kind of, it’s all about fertility. You’re supposed to remove your hat at a specific point and people march and stuff and it’s basically the guys who do it and that’s like the start of summer.”

This holiday fits in with the other Swedish holidays in that it marks the beginning of a season. Also, although many Swedes are Lutheran, the holidays are not based on Christian religion, but pagan gods and goddesses.

For more information, see: “Walpurgis Eve.” Sweden. Swedish Institute, 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

Midsommar

Nationality: Swedish
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 8, 2014
Primary Language: English

My friend was born in Sweden to a Swedish father and American mother, but moved to the United States as a child, so she sat down with me and told me about the different holidays that are celebrated in Sweden. Some were holidays she had celebrated frequently, while others we less important to her, but she still knew about from her family. Since midsummer includes children in the celebration, she had fond memories of past holidays in Sweden.

“Then we have midsommar, which is midsummers, it’s like the middle and it’s usually the summer solstice and that’s where it’s like the typical maypole, it’s almost like a cross with two rings and kids will have strings and dance around the maypole. And that’s also fertility”

Q: Have you celebrated this?

“I’ve done it ever since I was little. Usually it’s like the entire community gets together and there’s a central maypole for that community. So it’s not like it’s a fair, but everybody comes out and they picnic. And what the girls are supposed to do, is you’re supposed to collect seven different types of wildflowers and you make wreaths, like crowns, that you wear and you wear it all day and the girls usually wear white dresses and you’re supposed to jump over five different fences, and what you usually do is eat strawberries, strawberries and cream are like, in season, so you usually have strawberry cake and stuff like that. And you’re outside and you play games and it’s really, really fun. There’s specific songs and dances that you do while you dance around the Maypole. One of them is små grodorna, which means little frogs, and you jump over people…it’s for kids but it’s really, really cute. But when you get older, it’s like you drink and, but everybody still dresses up and it’s really pretty. But what girls are supposed to do is you put the wreath under your pillow and then you dream about the man you’re going to marry. I really remember actually making the crowns, because my mom was really good at doing it, because you have to like, braid, because they’re like wildflowers, you don’t buy something, you braid the flowers to create these really pretty things. It’s super fun and it lasts throughout the day”