Tag archives for Easter

It’s Easter (Påsk) time and that can only mean Spring, right? Sure it snowed and hailed last weekend here in Uppsala but there is no way that Spring is not coming. It’s cool the way Swedes watch for signs of Spring and how eager they are to get out and enjoy the outdoors the minute the weather makes things a little more hospitable. It’s good to look up from your computer now and then and get outside. (Wrote the woman typing out a blog post!)

 

Some of the Swedish Easter traditions I recognize and others are completely foreign to me as an American.

Candy? Yup, we got that.

Colored eggs? Yup.

Egg hunts? Yup, but it’s different in Sweden, more on that in my next post.

Witches going door to door? Nope. Not seen that before.

Feather trees? Excuse me, what?

 

The Easter Witch

Let’s get right to the Easter Witch. According to a slim book I have called “Celebrating the Swedish Way” published by the Swedish Institute, “Trick-or-treat became an Eastertime tradition in the 19th century, originally practiced by adults in masks and costumes, but later by young girls.”

In modern times, little kids—mostly girls but some boys, too—go door to door dressed up as witches (this involves lots of head scarves, kitchen aprons, and painted-on freckles) and beg for candy. Like most traditions around the world, it is a mix of the old and new. The witch concept harks back to the belief that witches would fly to Blåkulla, a German mountain, the Thursday before Easter (Maundy Thrusday) to frolic with Satan.

According to the ”Celebrating” book, people also used to hide their brooms and rakes so that witches could not fly off on them. But I saw a neighbor out burning leaves this morning so obviously that is no longer a concern. At least in Uppsala.

 

Feather Trees

I have read so many different explanations as to how this came about that I no longer have a good grasp on the concept. But feathers in trees, how awesome is that? And the feathers are always these bright pinks, blues and yellows. The two trees outside the train station in Knivsta (see below) looked like a giant Dr. Seuss bird crashed into a similar bird mid-air and all that’s left is an explosion of feathers caught in the trees.

 

The home version is an Easter tree (Påskris) consisting of some birch twigs and sticks in a vase with the colored feathers tied on with thread or wire. Some people hang eggs from the branches. Nearly every attempt at explaining how this tradition came about involves a vague reference to Christ’s suffering and people (in the days of old) thrashing each other with branches. Luckily that last part seems to have disappeared!