Friday My Town: Things That Look Like Faces

I’ve not been out with the camera this week, and to be honest I haven’t had the FMTSO theme in mind at all. Until today… and today I have not been out. I’ve been baking. Swedish saffron buns called “lussekatter” – “Lucia cats”, which belong in our Advent traditions. 

So I made these two specially for you.

They may look more like squirrels than cats, but at least I tried!

The more traditional shape is like those on the right, below:

The last time I was out with the camera was last Friday, and then I went looking in shop windows…

Found some electric candlesticks with faces:

There’s a very light first snowfall going on outside my windows as I write – a very thin layer of white powdering the ground.

Happy 1st Advent weekend, everyone!  / Monica

FMTSO

Advent Calendar – Tuesday 13th December

 

Watch a Swedish Lucia Morning at YouTube.

Read about the tradition in a blog post of mine from 2010.

Midsummer

On Midsummer Eve, going out to my dad’s old place, I got off the bus close to this old stone circle – not among the most impressive in Sweden, but still around 2000 years old. It was hard to get a good photo view of it on a grey summer day. It is quite close to the road and there are also modern buildings close by. In this photo I managed to edit out an electrical cabinet in the background. The flowers in the foreground are Lupines; very common around here at Midsummer.

… … …

Below is a frosty autumn photo from the same place for comparison.
I probably spent an hour finding it on the computer, convinced it must have been back in 2009 I took it. Turned out however that it was as recently as in November 2010 – only 7½ months ago.

The stone circles of the Iron Age (ca. 500 BC – ca. 400 AD) were a characteristic burial custom of southern Scandinavia, especially on Gotland and in Götaland during the Pre-Roman Iron Age and the Roman Iron Age. In Sweden, they are called Domarringar (judge circles). The circles are usually round, or elongated ellipses. The stones may be very large and they are usually between 9 and 12. Sometimes there are as few as 6–8. Excavations have shown burnt coal in the centre of the circles and they are nowadays considered to be incineration graves. There is also a widespread tradition that the circles were used for so-called “things”, or general assemblies.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Friday My Town: Flag Day

For once I’m lucky and the theme of an American celebration actually coincides (more or less) with the Swedish equivalent.

In Sweden we celebrate Flag Day on 6th June. In 1983 the day was promoted to National Day, but no one paid much attention to that until 2005 when it was also made a proper holiday.

I think most of us still hardly know exactly what it is we’re supposed to be celebrating. But hey, give us a day off and add a bit of sunshine and we don’t mind waving a few flags and listening to music and a speech in the town park.

It’s not that we’re not proud of our nation; it’s more a question of not having a specific date for its beginning.

6th June is the day when king Gustav Vasa or Gustav I of Sweden was crowned back in 1523. But the list of kings who ruled both Svealand/ ‘Sweden’ and Götaland/ ‘Gothia’ goes back to around 970. And before that, those two as separate nations go back even further.

Blue and yellow have been used as the colours of _Sweden at least since 1275.

According to legend, a 12th century Swedish king Eric the Holy saw a golden cross in the sky as he landed in Finland during the First Swedish Crusade in 1157. Seeing this as a sign from God he adopted the golden cross against a blue background as his banner. There are however no contemporary sources about the crusade, and no pictures or descriptions of the flag until the mid 16th century (i.e. the reign of king Gustav I mentioned above).

Anyway – the flag as well as the nation is quite old!

 

Some standard bearers have a dress code, others apparently do not.

 

 

Swedish national costume. This is a sort of “compromise” costume developed from a wide variety of traditional folk costumes.

Not a lot of people were wearing folk costumes on this day. Even the few who might have one in their wardrobe may have hesitated to put it on, since it was an unusually hot day (30°C/86°F in the shadow and foreboding thunder).

 

That was Monday. Since then there has been thunder and rain, and now we’re back to 13°C/55°F (and rain). That’s Swedish summer in a nutshell – you never know! Since today is graduation day for a lot of students, I feel a bit sorry for them.