So Monday is June 6th, Sweden’s National Day, celebrated to commemorate the founding of ‘modern Sweden’ in 1523 (that’s how long we’ve been modern in this country) when Gustav Vasa was crowned King of Sweden. Gustav Vasa freed Sweden from the evil Danes who had previously ‘owned’ us and who had also decapitated most of Sweden’s nobility in the bloodbath of Stockholm (7-9 November 1520). He is furthermore considered the original skier of our very beloved 90 kilometres long Vasalopp that an amazing number of mad people put themselves through every year in March.
Unlike other National Days like the Norwegian ‘Syttende Mai’ or the American 4th of July we really don’t celebrate our National Day much here, but if you consider the facts that the 6th of June was only legally turned into a holiday in 2004 (robbing us of the holiday of Whitsun Monday), and that prior to 1983 it was only recognised as the Day of the Swedish Flag this might make more sense. If you further consider that we Swedes are almost shy about our nationality and have ‘let’ the neo-nazi racists adopt our flag as their symbol to the point where it’s now almost questionable if you dare to sport a Swedish flag on your clothing or belongings without someone commenting on it or asking outright if you have something against immigrants, the whole celebrating the National Day becomes more of a sore issue than I think most non-Swedes can possibly imagine. At least to us Swedes.
In Stockholm there is usually a parade with the Royal Family in horse-drawn carriages and some speeches and traditional Swedish musical entertainment at the open air museum Skansen. That is more or less it!
Personally I think it’s a shame! I think we should be proud of our nationality while realising that it doesn’t necessarily make us better than others. I think we should be proud of our flag with its blue background and yellow cross that, according to legend, dates back to 1157 when Erik the Holy (supposedly one of very few legit Swedish saints) is said to have seen a yellow cross in the sky upon landing in Finland during the First Swedish Crusade (believe it or not, I only just learned this by looking it up on Wikipedia). I think we should be proud of our National Emblem of Three Crowns, even when we’re not cheering our boys or girls on in some game of ice-hockey or football. And I think we should be extremely proud of this beautiful country that we live in! Sweden is exceptional in so many ways, and we should take the opportunity to celebrate this on Monday!
Monday also happens to be the second annual Kiss a Swedish Person Day (according to this page on Facebook). Of course, I think this is an even more brilliant idea and will definitely spend Monday trying to kiss as many Swedes as possible (consider this fair warning!).
4 June, 2011
If you think a Swedish flag can be embarrassing then you should try waving a Union Jack without someone throwing a brick at you!
Wow… Nah, that usually doesn’t happen when you’re waving the Swedish flag… Then again, I never saw anyone hurling bricks at the Union Jacks while I lived in London either. I have to ask where that reference comes from?
I suppose it is more of a question about if you did wave the flag you’d be scared someone would throw a brick at you! Far too many bad associations with it!
Have you not yet noticed that Swedes tend to cringe more at silent disapproving glances than at the threat of thrown stones… Perhaps it’s the Viking ancestry?
Not been here long enough to gauge, to be grank..will need a few more months to make such an assessment 🙂
Well, I look forward to reading any and all dispatches about it (and probably jump eagerly to the defense of any and all things Swedish in the process)! You provided the best giggles, laughs and smiles of the entire week-end!
You know where to find me! Next Dispatch on Friday, subject: wildlife.