{"id":8717,"date":"2020-08-21T02:19:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T02:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=8717"},"modified":"2020-08-21T02:19:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T02:19:53","slug":"mid-august-means-crayfish-and-moon-illusions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/mid-august-means-crayfish-and-moon-illusions\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid-August Means Crayfish and Moon Illusions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kra\u0308ftma\u030anar.

Kra\u0308ftma\u030anar. Photo: Carolina Romare \/ Image Bank Sweden<\/p><\/div>\n

What do harvest moons and crayfish have in common? They can both be seen, and the crayfish eaten, around mid-august. When kr\u00e4ftskiva<\/em> – Crayfish Party is on the docket, Swedes revel in the last bit of summer with outdoor garden fests, lots of decorations, messy crayfish eating, and, japp,<\/em> drinking ALL the drinks.\u00a0<\/span>A little bit of kr\u00e4ftskiva<\/em> googling will deliver a fair share of recipes for the iconic v\u00e4sterbottenpaj<\/em>, lessons on preparing you dilly kr\u00e4ftor<\/em> \/ crayfish, and which drinking songs are obligatory! But for this post, I thought I\u2019d focus on something just as important, but maybe less apparent – the kr\u00e4ftskiva<\/em> d\u00e9cor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But first, to jog our memories,<\/span> kr\u00e4ftpremi\u00e4ren<\/span><\/i>, “The Crayfish Premier” is August 7 each year, and the beginning of <\/span>kr\u00e4ftfiskes\u00e4songen<\/span><\/i> – the “crayfishing” season. According to Nordiska museet<\/a>, crayfish weren\u2019t commonly eaten among Swedish commoners until the 1900\u2019s, a tradition traveling north from the European continent. It was considered a party food, because acquiring enough crayfish to eat – as well as the physical process of eating them – is a bit of a chore. To commemorate the hard work, kr\u00e4ftor<\/em> are washed down with akvavit\u00a0\/ <\/em>aquavit. For more about what a kr\u00e4ftskiva feels like, see this anecdote from an earlier blog<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019re brushed up on kr\u00e4ftskiva<\/em>, let\u2019s hone in on d\u00e9cor! For me, vases filled with dillkronor<\/em> \/ crown dill, hanging lanterns, and place settings with crayfish adorned paper bibs and hats come to mind. But probably the most common decoration found at a crayfish fest is the kr\u00e4ftm\u00e5ne<\/em>. Translating to crayfish moon, this paper decoration is commonly found hanging above the table. It\u2019s a round, crimped yellow and red paper circle with a jolly, grinning face as seen in the photo above. But what’s the significance of this quirky decoration? I realized I had no idea and deciding to do some digging.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Harvest<\/a>

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Harvest Moon – Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

It turns out that because kr\u00e4ftskiva<\/em> happens in sensommaren<\/em> \/ the late summer, it aligns with a phenomenon <\/span>called m\u00e5nillusionen<\/em> – the moon illusion, also referred to as the harvest moon. This spectacular sight is an optical illusion that happens as the moon sits on the horizon and looks much larger than it really is, often showcasing a RED color. So kr\u00e4ftm\u00e5nar<\/em> are a play on the Man in the Moon, and the sight of an enormous red moon one may see on an August eve, while slurping snaps<\/em> and enjoy tiny, but succulent pieces of salty crayfish meat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feeling a DIY moment? We all need to spend more time using our hands besides tapping away on the keyboard or scrolling on our smartphones. <\/span>Helena Lyth,<\/span><\/a> a designer and blogger based in Stockholm will be our guide! Her website chock-full of suuuper svensk<\/em> pyssel<\/em> \/craft, heminredning<\/em> \/ home d\u00e9cor, and recept<\/em> \/ recipes with a modern take on the classics.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve included part of her post here, but you’ll have to visit her website for the step-by-step photos!<\/span><\/p>\n

G\u00f6r egen dekoration till kr\u00e4ftskivan<\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n
\"\"

Helena Lyth – G\u00f6r egna kr\u00e4ftm\u00e5nar<\/p><\/div>\n

Vad som beh\u00f6vs:<\/b> Tre gula A4-papper, r\u00f6d tuschpenna, lim (g\u00e4rna limpistol), tunn st\u00e5ltr\u00e5d<\/span><\/p>\n

G\u00f6r s\u00e5 h\u00e4r:
\n<\/b>M\u00e5la kortsidorna p\u00e5 A4-papprena med r\u00f6d tuschpenna p\u00e5 det gula pappret, b\u00e5de p\u00e5 bak och framsida.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vik hela pappret, l\u00e5ngsidan, i dragpelsvikning och avsluta med att vika p\u00e5 mitten.<\/span><\/p>\n

Limma ihop de tv\u00e5 \u201cbenen\u201d och g\u00f6r likadant med de resterande tv\u00e5 pappersarken.<\/span><\/p>\n

Limma ihop de tre \u201csolfj\u00e4drarna\u201d, h\u00e5la och h\u00e4ng upp.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Will you make one?! Tell me about it in the comments?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Kra\u0308ftma\u030anar.

What do harvest moons and crayfish have in common? They can both be seen, and the crayfish eaten, around mid-august. When kr\u00e4ftskiva – Crayfish Party is on the docket, Swedes revel in the last bit of summer with outdoor garden fests, lots of decorations, messy crayfish eating, and, japp, drinking ALL the drinks.\u00a0A little bit…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":8718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,9979,3079,13],"tags":[34600,3187,364867,477079,3269,8239,3452,130164,34680],"class_list":["post-8717","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-living-in-sweden","category-swedish-language","category-vocabulary","tag-crayfish-party","tag-festivals","tag-food","tag-kraftskiva","tag-learn-swedish","tag-swedish-culture","tag-swedish-food","tag-swedish-holidays","tag-swedish-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8722,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8717\/revisions\/8722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}