Easter and Walpurgis night

Easter

Easter (Påsk) in Sweden is a vibrant and colorful holiday, blending Christian traditions with older, pre-Christian customs. The Easter season begins with “Palm Sunday” (Palmsöndagen), and the week leading up to Easter, known as “Holy Week” (Stilla veckan), is filled with various traditions that vary between religious observance and folk customs. The easterdays in Sweden are named skärtorsdagen, långfredag, påskafton, påskdagen and annandagpåsk.

One of the most charming and unique Swedish Easter traditions is the custom of children dressing up as “påskkärringar” or Easter witches. On Maundy Thursday (Skärtorsdagen) or Easter Saturday (Påskafton), children don colorful old clothes, paint their faces with freckles, and wear headscarves, resembling witches from folklore. They go door-to-door, much like trick-or-treating on Halloween, offering handmade Easter cards and drawings in exchange for sweets or small coins. This tradition is rooted in the old belief that witches flew to “Blåkulla” on Maundy Thursday to meet with the devil, and it has evolved into a playful and much-loved part of Swedish Easter.

Many see Easter as an opportunity to spend time with their family, and as a holiday associated with the start of spring. While Easter in many other European countries is a distinct religious celebration, in Sweden it has over time become more secular.

For many, Easter and food goes hand in hand. In fact, Easter is the second largest food weekend after Christmas. The most common dishes are eggs, salmon, herring and lamb roast. During Easter we eat twice as much eggs as during a normal week. The eggs are also used to be painted and decorated with different patterns. The fact that eggs have become strongly associated with Easter is related to the fact that eating the eggs during the Christian Easter fast was prohibited. While no one ate eggs, the chickens began to lay – and when the fast was over there were plenty of eggs to enjoy. Filling empty Easter eggs with sweets, chocolates and other sweets is very popular, and during Easter Day, many children get to look for Easter eggs in the garden.

Using Easter tree branches during Easter is an old tradition that lives on. Originally, the tree branches were used to whip, and this was done to remind of Jesus’ suffering. Nowadays, the branches acts as a decoration and is often decorated with beautiful colorful feathers and ornamental eggs.

Walpurgis Night/Last of April

Walpurgis Night (Valborgsmässoafton), celebrated on the evening of April 30th, is a festive occasion that marks the arrival of spring in Sweden. The tradition has its roots in pagan customs and is named after Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess whose feast day falls on May 1st. Over time, Walpurgis Night became associated with the celebration of spring, and it is now a time for Swedes to gather outdoors and welcome the warmer months.

Walpuris night is one of the festivities that have been linked to the entrance of the summer season, and in many places in Sweden, the firecrackers are lit in the evening, accompanied by choral singing and spring speeches. Nowadays, the fire has become a tradition of throwing away everything you want to get rid of on the fire; old doors, fences, branches from cropped fruit trees, bushes, cardboard boxes, etc.

Last April, the fires are lit all over the country.
For the students, walpuris is a first promise of freedom. Most exams are completed, only a few lectures remain before the end of the semester. It is on the last of April that you put on your white student hat and sing songs for spring, the budding flowers and the bright future.