Jul och nyår

painting by Elsa Beskow

JUL — Christmas
Christmas is the biggest and longest holiday of the year. Schoolchildren are on holiday for a couple of weeks. The height of the celebration is Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, followed by the two holidays Christmas Day and Boxing Day.Christmas festivities involve numerous traditional activities and attributes, the most important of which are the Christmas tree, the Christmas meal, and the visit of the "tomte" or Christmas gnome.Introduced into Sweden from Germany, the Christmas tree has been a part of Christmas in Sweden since the 1700s. It was not until well into the last century that the custom became general, however. Nearly every Swedish household now brings in a tree one or two days before Christmas and decorates it with sparkling objects, gaily wrapped candies, glass bulbs and other small trinkets, many made of straw. The tree is also adorned with lights — usually electric these days, although some still use stearin candles. The tree is kept watered, and many households keep their trees until the very end of the holiday, which falls on the twentieth day after Christmas — Knut's day in the Swedish calendar. Lighted trees outdoors have become increasingly
common, and every town and village decorates a community tree.

painting by Elsa Beskow

Christmas Eve, then, is the height of the festivities. Traditionally it is a day when no work should be done other than seeing to one's livestock. This is the day of the Christmas feast, which comprises a smörgåsbord including a few traditional dishes such as ham, jellied pig's feet, "lutfisk" and rice porridge. "Lutfisk" (literally "lye-fish") is most likely a throwback to a period of fasting from pre-Reformation times. It is a dish prepared of ling that is dried and then boiled. The Christmas feast also includes a tradition called "dipping in the kettle", in which the assembled family and guests dip bits of bread in the broth left over after boiling the ham. Both "lutfisk" and "dipping in the kettle" are actually poor man's fare from olden days, but they live on thanks to their role in holiday festivities.After the meal, it is time for a visit from the "tomte" or Christmas gnome. He was believed to live under the floor-boards of the house or barn. The "tomte" was credited with looking after the family and their livestock. In the late 1800s a Swedish artist began producing greeting cards illustrated with gnomes. Her figures were a tremendous success, and soon the "tomte" had assumed a role comparable to that of the various Santa Claus figures in other countries. He is believed to come with presents. In many households nowadays someone disguised as a "tomte", a big sack of presents over his or her shoulder, appears on the doorstep sometime toward the evening of Christmas Eve. By tradition Swedes attend church in the small hours of Christmas morning. In olden days it was customary to race in sleds or horse-drawn wagons home from the services. The winner was believed to have the best harvest the coming year. Otherwise, the day is spent quietly within the family circle, with Christmas parties and get-togethers the following day and on through the holidays until Knut's day a week after Twelfth Night.

painting by Aina Stenberg

NYÅR
New Year' s EveNew Year's Eve in Sweden is not the carnival-like occasion it is in many countries. Swedes are apt to celebrate the New Year by inviting a few friends home, and many greet the coming year in front of their television sets. Since the turn of the century Stockholmers have gathered at Skansen (an open-air museum) at midnight to hear a reading of Tennyson's "Ring- out the old, ring- in the new". When radio arrived on the scene in the 1920s, this reading was broadcast through-out the country, a tradition now carried on by television. Perhaps this is part of the reason why Swedes tend to stay at home on New Year's Eve. Restaurants are, of course, fully booked, and some people let off fireworks, but very often New Year's Eve in Sweden is spent quietly at home. If you know the right tricks, you can predict the fortunes of the coming year. You might, for example, melt lead and cast the molten metal into a bowl of cold water. The shape of the resulting lead clump bears a clue about the coming year. This custom is widespread in Germany and most probably came to Sweden from that country. I t was also customary in olden days to go out into the frozen fields or roads in the dark of the long midwinter night and stand and listen. If you thought you heard, say, the sound of a scythe cutting grass, it meant a good harvest for the coming year, but if you heard, say, the clang of sword against sword, there might be rattling of arms and war afoot.
Author: Ingemar Liman
Translation: Charly Hultén