Archive for April, 2010
Valborgsmässoafton tonight, May Day tomorrow Posted by Gabriel on Apr 30, 2010
So, let’s all light big fires and get drunk. I love Sweden. This is one of those Swedish holidays which is kind of funny. It derives from a number of different pagan spring customs (traditioner). It’s also celebrated in other countries like Germany and Estonia for example. Students will party hard, with their white student…
Can you find the hidden Swedish verbs? Posted by jennie on Apr 30, 2010
It’s not any random Friday in Sweden today, it’s Valborgsmässoafton (read Katja’s post about Walpurgis night here!) and it’s also the Swedish king’s 64th birthday! Grattis på födelsedagen HM Carl XVI Gustaf! As Gabriel wrote earlier this week, the king probably has his hands full at the moment – or as we would say in Swedish when…
Swedish proverbs Posted by Tibor on Apr 29, 2010
New times call for new proverbs. I have collected some evergreen Swedish proverbs. You may recognize some of them or similar from your own language. Please do share it with everyone if you have some funny sayings. As we are used to it: Som man bäddar får man ligga. As you make your bad you will…
Win a Swedish book – again! Posted by jennie on Apr 28, 2010
Anyone up for some Swedish readning? Since last month’s book contest was such a great success, I think it’s time for a favorit i repris ( “to rerun a favourite”) But this time I’m going to make it a little bit harder for you – but only a little bit. All you need to do is to to…
Snakker du dansk? Posted by Tibor on Apr 28, 2010
It is not only the 15 km long Öresundsbron (Öresund bridge) that connects Denmark with Sweden, but several hundereds of years of common history as well. However, the most important link between the two countries is the language. Thousand of Swedes and Danes working on the other side of the sea and commuting is not…
Folkdräkt 2.0: Re-inventing the national costume Posted by jennie on Apr 27, 2010
The Scots have their kilts, the Japanese have the kimono, the Norwegians have their bunad and well, you get the picture. But the Swedes? What do the Swedes wear on special Swedish occasions? We have a traditional Swedish costume (Sverigedräkten) and we even have 25 different varieties of that one (one for each province) and we probably have…
Madeleine and Jonas split – Do you support Sweden’s royal family? Posted by Gabriel on Apr 27, 2010
The Swedish Royal Court recently announced that Princess Madeleine had broken up with her fiancé, Jonas Bergström, after weeks of media reports about a brief affair between the groom-to-be and a Norwegian handball star during a ski trip. Yes, handball. (We’ll explain that in another post:-)) It has been quite a few exciting years for…