Allhelgona, Alla helgons dag, All Saints Day, Halloween. But what is the difference between the names? We like to celebrate in general in Sweden. We are really good at it. I mean really good. New Year’s Eve (Nyårsafton), Fettisdagen (The Fat Tuesday), Walpurgis Eve (Valborgsmässoafton), Våffeldagen (Waffle Day), Midsummer (Midsommar), Cray Fish Party (Kräftskiva), The sour herring premiere (surströmmingspremiär) and a few more.

The common thing for the celebrations around this time of the year is death (döden). This might sound peculiar I know but the days are so close to each other and there is time both for celebration, mourning and memorials of different kind.

Halloween was originally a celtic celebration where people would build bonfires to show to way and help the dead to the other side. The celebration should be on 31st October but it’s obviously celebrated on the closest weekend.

The Swedish Allahelgona  or Alla helgons dag is at the 1st November. It was erased from the calender in 1700s but it was reinstated in 1953 again. Since then the day is usually on a Saturday between 31st Oktober and 6  November. In the 50s we started also the tradition to put candles (gravljus) on the graves.