My Easter Sunday, or Glad Påsk, in Sweden

Easter is approaching in Sweden, which not only took me by complete surprise (like, "oh what it's Easter tomorrow?") but has also slid in another dose of that oh-so-wonderful culture exchange I haven't felt since December.

So, shall we? 

I give you, Easter--or Glad Påsk--in Sweden

The first thing you have to understand about Easter in Sweden is that it's essentially a mix between Halloween and Easter as Americans understand it. A lot of the traditions that exist now are a mix between older pagan rituals and serious Christian roots. The whole holiday stretches from Thursday until Sunday (though I hear Monday many people have the day off), and it involves several things... 

First, feathers on trees.

In March, I started to see a curious phenomenon hit the streets at (again) the grocery stores and the gardening boutiques. Then, this sight started to appear in my neighborhood, on the balconies, in trees. I finally asked Annika what this meant, these feathers pasted onto twigs and little feather-trees, and she said they meant to herald spring and the arrival of birds which lay chocolate eggs. After questioning my incredulous look, I shrugged and told her, "well, I like birds..."

Easter witches

About four weeks from Easter, I started finding checked costumes in green, orange, pink, and blue in the local grocery stores. This is a picture of my friend Anastasia holding up a sample we found yesterday. Here, there is a day much like Halloween called skärtorsdag, or Maundy Thursday, where children dress up as påskhärringar (Easter witches), paint their faces and knock on doors for treats. This, I'm told, has something to do with pre-Christian folklore which says that this was the day witches flew off on broomsticks to dance with the devil at Blåkulla. Either way, it makes me feel like I've turned another year older. ;)

Oh, and also, there's brooms.

Semlor.

Semlor (semla, singular) have been something I've been meaning to write about since the beginning of Lent, but forgot to in the chaos of traveling. Around Fat Tuesday (and several weeks up to it), all the Swedish cafes serve this little creme-and-almond-marzipan-filled cardamom cakes---I think the recipe dates back to the days where people would try to get rid all of their creme before starting Lent. But Swedes seem to go nuts for these cakes, and I don't blame them. They're delicious. But the whole semla process and prestige is a very big deal. Like julmust, there are competitions and voting on who makes the best semla in town. And the semla-eating goes on for days; it's hard to resist a little semla cake with your coffee in March...

I happened to sample my first one at the "top" bakery in Gothenburg, but I think my favorite were the ones Elin made back in March in Stockholm. Here are some pictures... :)

Mmmm, so good!

Sugar chicks. And cakes.

Oh my God. This, by far, has to be my favorite thing about Easter in Sweden. I mean, what Easter is complete without all the festive food? And what better way to celebrate Easter than with little marzipan yellow chicks, which Annika calls "candy chickens," and in itself pleases me so much that it enhances the endearing quality of these little sugary items to me over a level that I'm really comfortable with. I love these things. There needs to be a cereal based on this; I'd eat a bowl everyday.

Candy eggs. Chocolate rabbits.

But outside of the little frosting-chicks, Sweden's also does the candy-egg and chocolate-rabbit thing. This is a picture I took of a whole box of casings that parents could buy and fill up with chocolates; here, they don't use those small, plastic eggs that fit, like 8 M&Ms. Here, their candy eggs are bombs. And the Easter bunnies are Swiss chocolate, and very expensive. But the egg hunt still exists, and the dying of eggs, too. In fact, last time I went to the grocery store, they had crated in an entire 5'x5' box of white 12-dozen eggs in anticipation for the holiday. That's a lot of coloring.

The actual day: Långfredag and Påskafton

On the actual weekend leading up to Easter, everything shuts down. Annika told me to go do my grocery shopping before Good Friday, that's how bad it gets. Luckily, I managed to find some places open (though definitely with restricted hours) to get food for my own dinner, but she was right. Göteborg by Friday was yawn-city inside; it was a gorgeous day out, and instead of being sombre really, people were out enjoying the sun and picnicking in the parks. Glorious to have Good Friday off in such a non-secular country---but Swedes actually call this day Långfredag, or Long Friday, the most boring day of the year.

On Saturday, though, things get busy. Like Christmas, Swedes celebrate Easter the night before (påskafton). Those who are religious attend Easter Vigil and then eat a massive meal  later in the day. Unfortunately, I don't know what things they serve at a meal for glad påsk, but at ours (which a few friends from the course and I coincidentally had on Easter Sunday), we had massive amounts of wine, lamb, potatoes, spinach-and-feta, and dyed eggs. And a cake that looked like an egg! Delicious...

While sitting on the porch in the sun sipping wine, one of my Swedish friends Linnea told us about her hometown, and how at that very hour, they'd be starting the bonfires. Apparently, in some parts of northern Sweden, people light fires in the pagan tradition of warding off the witches when they fly to Blåkulla. I thought it was probably a good excuse to burn old garden-weeds and talk around a warm fire.

But it was a wonderful Easter. Slow, sunny, and filled with constant little bits of eating. 

Oh, and of course, what Arens-Easter wouldn't be complete without Vetebröd? :)

Happy Easter, everyone!