{"id":653,"date":"2010-04-01T21:56:01","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T21:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=653"},"modified":"2010-04-05T09:35:02","modified_gmt":"2010-04-05T09:35:02","slug":"swedish-easter-traditions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/swedish-easter-traditions-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Swedish Easter traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Easter is upon us (wasn’t it Christmas yesterday?) and today I’ll give you a crash course to the Swedish Easter traditions. There are not many, but there are a few things that you need to embrace if you are going to celebrate a prober Swedish Easter. And I promise you, this post is completely April Fool’s free.<\/p>\n

First of all, let’s get some the vocabulary out of the way:
\nEaster = P\u00e5sk (Comes from the Hebrew word \u201cpesach\u201d, which\u00a0means “Passover”.)
\nGlad P\u00e5sk = Happy Easter
\nMaundy Thursday = Sk\u00e4rtorsdagen
\nGood Friday = L\u00e5ngfredagen
\nEaster Eve\/Easter Saturday = P\u00e5skafton
\nEaster Sunday = P\u00e5skdagen
\nEaster Monday = Annandag P\u00e5sk<\/p>\n

P\u00e5skk\u00e4rringar (Easter witches)<\/strong>
\nThis weekend, Swedish kids will dress up as witches and old men (the boys)\u00a0 and go door-to-door\u00a0and sort of\u00a0trick-or-treating and get candy in exchange for Easter greetings. But why witches? An old\u00a0legend from the 17th century tells the story about\u00a0how the witches flew\u00a0on their brooms to a place called Bl\u00e5kulla on\u00a0Maundy Thursday. There, they had a big feast\u00a0\u00a0and did not return until Easter Sunday. To scare the witches away, people lightened fires and fired rifles. This tradition lives on today, but today the\u00a0rifles are\u00a0exchanged into firecrackers (p\u00e5sksm\u00e4llare<\/strong>)\u00a0and the fires\u00a0have turned into big Easter bonfires (p\u00e5skeldar<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

P\u00e5sk\u00e4gg (Easter eggs)<\/strong>
\nThe eggs we eat are decorated, as in many other countries. But we also have a cardboard version (non edible…), painted with Easter motives and filled with candy (if you are lucky).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

P\u00e5skris<\/strong>
\nP\u00e5skris are simply branches (mostly birch) decorated with colourful feathers and other Easter-like stuff. It is the\u00a0Easter equivalent of Christmas tree but since I couldn’t find any birch in our 10 square meter small garden, I Easter-pimped an old dried chili plant. Not especially impressive, but imagine it being twice as big and a lot livelier,\u00a0and you’ve got the picture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then there’s of course the food! Since we tend to enjoy our big feast on Saturday, I’ll spare you the yummy details until then.<\/p>\n

Glad p\u00e5sk everybody!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Easter is upon us (wasn’t it Christmas yesterday?) and today I’ll give you a crash course to the Swedish Easter traditions. There are not many, but there are a few things that you need to embrace if you are going to celebrate a prober Swedish Easter. And I promise you, this post is completely April…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,3079],"tags":[3167,3168],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-swedish-language","tag-easter","tag-easter-traditions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t