Easter

Ah, it’s so nice to have some days off from work, just be together and chill out. In Sweden Good Friday and Boxing Day (Monday) are public holidays, so we have four days off. We have been at home Friday and Saturday, but tomorrow we will take the train to Stockholm for some mini holidays. J

Today we’ve been having my mother and father, my uncle and Håkans mother and her husband over for Easter dinner. Traditionally we eat a lot of eggs, herring (Swe: sill), salmon, potato and sour cream as a starter. And then we had lamb and potato gratin as main course. The funny thing is that we have almost the same food for Christmas and Midsummer (at least the starter is the same)….

Another Easter tradition is that kids dress up as witches (but often looks more like old ladies) and walk around in the neighborhood and give away Easter cards and expect to get candy (a bit like “trick or treat” at Halloween, but without the trick). The tradition comes from the folklore belief in witches and that they fly on their brooms to “Blåkulla” for their annual meeting on Maundy Thursday. In some regions in Sweden people still light fires to scare the witches away.

I wish you all a nice Easter with family and friends!