In Sweden, Easter is a secular holiday and is a very big deal. Signs of it are omnipresent in Helsingborg; namely, twigs are decorated with colorful feathers all over town that are periodically changed out in central areas. For example, the front window of the cafe I'm writing this post in is framed by twigs decorated with pink and white feathers. For further proof, here are a few pics we took over the weekend.
I need to point out that the central picture was taken by a teenaged guy who attends the international school in Helsingborg. After chatting amiably for a bit about where we were all from -- he is from the north of Sweden -- and what the weather is like there, he politely turned to me and asked, "Would you consider eating less meat?" He then asked Erin the same question. There were signs in English all around the city center that said things like "don't eat smiles" and "fur is dead."
Back to Easter: there are small chick figurines wearing clothes and large plastic eggs filled with candy for sale in stores. There are also crazy sales going on at the grocery stores; yesterday, there were three pallets of eggs in the produce section of the shop nearest our apartment. Only 5 kronor for six eggs (about $0.58 USD)! These eggs were not refrigerated, else we might be the proud owners of at least 10 packages. In addition to Swedish kids painting eggs, the Swedes love to eat them alongside their pickled herring, and Easter is a great time to chow down on both with all their loved ones. I say, why not?
In my opinion, the most interesting thing about Easter is that the little kids dress up like witches and go house to house exchanging paintings or drawings for candy. It's basically like Halloween, except these "witches" really just dress like old people. The folklore is that during Easter, all these witches fly to some mountain to meet the devil. Isn't this the coolest?
On my walk to the cafe this morning, I passed a small school or daycare and the kids inside were wearing their costumes. I made eye contact with a little girl wearing a colorful headscarf with large painted-on freckles all over her cheeks and nose. If I could have one wish on this Wednesday, it would be to take a selfie with that little girl. But hey, I don't always get what I want.
The first pic below was blatantly stolen from the Internet and the second is of an item I happily spotted in the grocery store yesterday.
Because of Easter, Erin has a four-day weekend that starts on her birthday, known as Good Friday in some circles (but not in this one). The plan for the long weekend is to do a day trip to Copenhagen and at least one other day trip, either up the coast or to Sofiero, which is considered one of the top tourist destinations in Europe. More on that next week.
Happy Easter to all the little witches out there, and a great big happy early birthday to my Erin! I love you lots and lots.
Birthday hugs to Erin!! And little kid witch hugs to you, JJ! Great entry today :)
ReplyDeleteDid you know that grocery store eggs in the US have to be refrigerated, because we think it is fun to bleach them and wash the protective natural coating off of them? Once this coating is gone they go bad a lot faster. The eggs in this grocery store are totally safe if they come from a local farmer, who probably does not wash them before they are sent to the store. That is why you can buy eggs that are not refrigerated at the farmers markets. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for telling me this! I had no idea. Big surprise that the U.S. is doing crap to our food AGAIN.
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