We need First Advent, it gives us something else to think about, it brightens up our life at the end of the darkest month of the year.

On the fourth Sunday before Christmas the first candle is lit, with another being lit each proceeding Sunday, marking the countdown until Christmas. Once all four are shining brightly we know the waiting is almost over, a tradition that has taken place in Sweden since the 1890s and is loved by young and old.

Advent Candle Holders come in all manner of shapes and sizes and vary greatly in their decoration. They are traditionally decorated with a light green moss ”Cladína stelláris” which I believe suffers greatly from the amount that is collected at this time of year.

We have untraditional holders and I love the vibrancy of the green moss from the boulders in the forest. I also fill my with sand or soil and keep the moss damp, it creates much less of a fire hazard.

First Advent is also about putting stars and electrical advent candles in the windows, a tradition that has been around since the 1930s. The stars were originally made of paper, straw or wood and have became all the more popular as electricity became a part of life.

When we leave for work and school in the mornings in the dark, they light up our way.
When we come home in the afternoon or evening in the dark, they light up our way. The combination creates a special, magical feeling that I strongly associate with my first weeks in Sweden, many years ago.

The first Sunday in Advent is also the first day of the church year, and a day when people who are not normally church-goers might attend an advent service, often to see young children singing.

It also means we can officially start drinking glögg (mulled wine) and eating pepparkakor (cinnamon snaps).

So if you don't yet have candles, electrical or otherwise, and a star hanging in the window ready to be be turned on, you still have a couple of days. They are everywhere in the shops and you can be as traditional or as creative as you life. They light up our dark December and they add to the spirit of Christmas. Come Sunday you can officially light your candles, eat your pepparkakor and lussebullar and drink glögg.

Hooray for First Advent!

This Lucia is my 19 year anniversary – 19 years ago I came to live in Sweden for the first time. So I decided after so many years here it was time to bake Lussebullar (lusse buns) or Lussekatter (lusse cats). Swedes seem to love yeast buns and I always feel like it is a bit beyond my baking depths but at a friend’s recently I discovered how easy this recipe is.

1 egg to brush over the buns

 

Stay tuned for more Christmas traditions.....

It struck me today how hard the darkness and the cold weather is on children, how hard it is on all of us.

1. Light therapy. You can buy sunlights at well-stocked appliance stores or online. There are also a few around the country and light therapy centres around the country. Search on ljusterapi + café or + center or + behandling.
    
2. Escape to a warmer, sunnier place sometime over the winter. If you can’t manage that plan some sort of holiday, or weekend away. Go to the snow, go to another city, go the country. Spend the weekend on one of the cruise ships wandering around without a jacket and gloves! It is fantastic how much a change of scenery lifts our spirits even when the weather is at its worst.

3. Vitamin supplements – available from health food stores (häslokost butiker), online or bring your favorite kind with you.

4. Fish oil (fiskolja) – it is fantastic and really boosts the kids’ immune systems. They are less susceptible and if they get something they are not sick as long. A worthwhile investment for all the family and vegetarian alternatives exist such as flax seed oil.

5. Evening primrose oil - winter is hard on skin and the colder it gets the dryer my skin gets until my fingers are like sandpaper with cracks at the end of them. No amount of hand cream helps. The only cure is nattljusoljataken orally, daily.

6. Eat well. Nothing will bring you down as far and as fast as a poor diet. Lots of fruit and vegetables, and warming nutritious meals. Great time for curries and any other spicy food to warm you from the inside.

7. Sleep well. Sleep deprivation does terrible things to us at the best of times. You will need to be regularly getting enough sleep to keep your energy levels up. Make sure the kids get enough rest too. Earlier to bed rather than later.
    
8. Plan lots of events well in advance. Go to the theatre, movies, museums or anything else that is around. Meet friends there. Plan dinner parties with friends where you play games or just curl up by the fire and talk.

9. Take a course, join a club. Be active.

10. Have rituals and celebrate the seasons with Halloween, All Saints Day, First Advent and anything else that comes along. Make them your own celebrations; make up your own celebrations. They brighten life up and they mark the time.

11. Make the most of the sun as soon as you see it, because you never know when it will be back again. Any indoor activities can wait until another time, another day. If the sun is shining go outdoors.

12. Learn from the kids – Swedish kids are used to being out all year round and want to go out no matter what the weather. “There is no such thing as bad weather only unsuitable clothing” is a famous Swedish saying that is fitting for this time of year. Force yourself to get out regularly, rug up and be suitably dressed. Take up an outdoor sport – it will make a huge difference to your ability to enjoy this long season.

13. Know that this too will come to an end and keep an eye on the daylight hours. Know that you will rejoice like never before when the sun, the daylight, the birds, the flowers and the leaves return to us. Winter here gives you a whole new appreciation for the rebirth of nature, the survival of the species. To see bulbs pop up through the snow, buds appear on dormant trees and to hear the chirping from the early morning to the late hour brings joy, and gratefulness. And sighs of great relief.

It has been a busy week, with school and daycare finishing up for the academic year, clients being finalised and other clients in need of attention. I had such great intentions about getting back to the blog this week, but alas, that will have to wait a little longer.

In the meantime however I am very pleased to introduce Sue Dugen to you, she will keep the blog going while I am in sunny Canada. Sue and her family migrated here from the UK in 2006, in search of a better life. These true adventurers left family, friends and the life they had known behind them, they walked away from their security and have embraced this northern European country of ours.

I'm sure she will tell you more about her adventures, how she feels about life in Sweden and her latest career development as an indexer.

You will probably see some changes on the site during the summer as I will be sitting on the deck at the cottage working on the site, perhaps blogging a bit from time to time too.

In any case I hope that Sweden has a particularly warm and sunny summer, that the days are bright, the lakes are full of kids frolicking in the water, and that the flowers bloom.

Glad Midsommar! Glad sommar!

For those not familiar with our long weekend it was Walpurgis Night on Thursday night - as always on the 30th of April. As with most festivities in this country it is a pre-Christian tradition celebrated by many around the country and beyond. Walpurgis night is bonfire night!For Swedes of today it signals spring in all its glory. And you only know what that really means after having been here all winter and truely experiencing spring in all its glory. Valborg as we affectionately refer to it is practical almost as much as it is symbolic, as it offers a chance to burn the garden waste after the spring clean-up and pruning of the bushes and trees. It is also a opportunity to bring people together, for local organisations to sell lotto tickets and raise some money and to celebrate the approaching good weather - approaching I say because it is rarely good weather on Valborg. This year was an exception and although it was typically colder on Thursday night it was much milder and clearer than I have ever known it.

Unfortunately Valborg is also a big drinking night for teens and there are usually many incidences of alcohol related problems thanks to others buying alcohol for the under-aged youth.

We had a lovely evening with friends, eating dinner outside(!) with 3 other families before walking to the local fire. As you can see it was a big one and there were a lot of people there. Countless were streaming out and heading home as we approached. Music was playing courtesy of a 3-man band on the stage, people were selling lottery tickets as well as tea, coffee & cake in the little booths. Kids were running about, there were prams, bikes and dogs everywhere.
We hung back for a while before we ventured closer to take a look at the mighty bonfire - each family separating in groups to get as close as possible. After warming up we headed back to find the others and then everything changed. It only took a few seconds. I turned back to say something to Ty and in the meantime Kieran took off and headed back to the fire with the sticks he wanted to throw into it. I was standing at the yellow booths when he disappeared into the crowd. I didn't see him go, I didn't see which direction he went. He just disappeared.

We ran around like mad things looking for him. He was nowhere to be seen. Makaila was beside herself and told me she just wanted to stop and cry - but we had to keep looking. I saw one of the dads we were with and alerted him to get the others to help look and then headed straight for the stage - everything you can imagine flashed before my eyes - it makes me ill to think too much about it even now. They made an announcement and Makaila and I stood and waited, and waited. It seemed like an eternity. It was an entire song. I was just about to tell them to announce again when I saw my friend coming towards me with my son in her arms. Such relief. Makaila grabbed her brother, hugged him and burst into tears. We found Ty who was running about all over the place. We were all so relieved - except Kieran who didn't really understand what all the fuss was about!!

Neither of my kids have been the types to take off so we had never experienced losing them - now we have. It is a dreadful, dreadful feeling and I think it is all these terrible stories in the media that made it as bad as it was...... You automatically go off the deep end and think worse case scenario.We recovered and took Kieran back to the fire, to where he had been mesmerized standing with his dad, and where my friend found him. And he threw his sticks in to burn with all the others. A little later there were fireworks followed by a cold walk back to the house, warm drinks and apple crumble. All is well that ends well.

My advice after this little adventure? Apart from the obvious - don't take your eyes off your kids in a crowd, warm clothes (always advisable in this country) - and bright hats - just in case you do take your eyes off them, even for a split second. Yellow is a great colour for a hat don't you think?