Between what? Christmas and New Year’s, naturally!

I don’t know about you, but I am positively glad that Christmas is finally over. No more coming up with excuses to avoid eating lutefisk (lutfisk in Swedish, but “lutefisk” in English, OK?). Yay! And no more julskinka (Christmas ham). Yay! (The one we were treated to this year was particularly salty, more so than in previous years.) Unfortunately now all the leftover julskinka will go on sale and that means that my neighbor will buy about as many as her freezer can hold. And then she will keep inviting us over for dinner. Arrgh… She’s a sweet, older lady, and she lives alone and I just don’t have the heart to say “no” to her. So, we will politely go, bring cookies or a pie with us, and be subjected to julskinka until about Easter.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about today. I wanted to talk about mellandagarna.
Why? Because if you are shopoholic like me, this is a very important time of the year, indeed. Why? Sales!!!

You see, the days between Christmas and New Year’s are called mellangarna, which literally means “the between days.”

• mellan – middle, between

and

• dag (def. dagen, pl. dagar, pl.def. dagarna) – day

Depending on how many weekdays there are during this time, it’s traditional to use up your remaining vacation/holiday days off during this period. Otherwise, depending on your company’s policy, you may lose them when the year ends. So, some people sit at home and rest after the excesses of julbord, some people book a sunny getaway to the Canary Islands or elsewhere. And some people, like me, go shopping!

You see, mellandagarna is also synonymous with after-Christmas sales. And we like sales, right? Especially in this unhappy economy.

So, now in Swedish:

• Mellandagarna är traditionellt stora rea-dagar.

Hmmm… I wonder why I suddenly need a new pair of winter boots. Hmmm…