Swedish culture and traditions
...in my perspective
White Christmas
It is difficult to settle down in a country that one has never dreamt of staying. Firstly, the weather is extremely the opposite of the one we have in my homeland, Philippines. Sweden has 4 seasons like most of the European nations.
Winter is the season that i despise in the beginning but when i learned how to ice skate and ski, i actually enjoy it despite the cold. But when the temperature is really low, and I'm talking about 25 degrees below freezing point, you'll be imprisoned in your own home for some time. Winter is usually the time when I really miss the sunny beaches and cool diving spots in the Philippines. Not to mention the minimal clothes and the comfortable flip-flops.
The most amazing tradition during winter is Christmas. It never really occured to me that i'm gonna be experiencing a real white christmas. I remember that in the Philippines we use bubbles from a detergent bar to produce a snow-like thing under the christmas tree of bamboo. But here we use the real christmas tree and snow is everywhere. It's just amazing!
The Christmas celebration here in Sweden is similar to what we have in my country. But the swedish people count the advent weeks (4 weeks before christmas) by lighting a candle on a sunday of the first week (first advent), then the next sunday and so on until the last sunday before christmas.
At christmas eve we eat our christmas dinner , drink the best wine take our shots of snaps (spirit) and sing some swedish christmas songs. On the christmas table (julbord) we have ham (skinka), sausages (prinskorv), the traditional swedish meatballs, Jansson's temptation ( Janssons frestelse), cooked potatoes, smoked salmon, preserved herring and a lot more. And then comes Santa (usually grandfather or somebody who's willing to put the santa costume) with a big sack full of presents for everyone.
Gabriel age 4 and Nick 7 enjoying their presents
We usually celebrate christmas at my mother-in-law's place but when new year comes, me and my family and some friends celebrate it at the summer house which is located on an island. In the summer we ride on a speed boat back and forwards but in the winter we walk on the frozen lake. It was a scary experience in the beginning when one knows that the ice your walking on was water in the summer. But then after some years doing the same thing, I never even think about it anymore.
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I was at the Multimediapalace and borrowed the animations on this page.