This year is Easter in Sweden for many, so we thought we'd talk about Swedish Easter traditions. We list 12 Easter traditions that are, or have been, common in Sweden. Which of these traditions are important to you? Do you have a completely different, slightly odd tradition?
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Easter in Sweden
Easter is an important feast in Christianity, commemorating the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. Easter in Sweden today is also a time when we celebrate the arrival of spring, eat eggs and hopefully have fun with family and friends.
This year, Easter will be different for many, due to the ravages of the coronavirus. Holidays abroad are out of the question and travel within Sweden should be limited. In addition, many people have to cancel large family dinners because they may not want to risk spreading the infection within the family. Despite this, we hope that everyone gets at least a little Easter spirit this year.
Swedish Easter traditions
Here are 12 Swedish Easter traditions that are, or have been, common in Sweden. Which of these traditions are important to you? To be honest, we are not very traditional, but when we celebrate Easter in Sweden, we appreciate some good Easter food and, of course, extra eggs!
1. Days in Holy Week and Easter Week
There are many days to keep track of during Easter, for those who want to. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, followed by Blue Monday, White Tuesday, Dymmelon Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Eve. Easter Week then includes Easter Day, Easter Night and Easter Monday.
2. Service and Mass
Easter in Sweden includes the organisation of the Easter Night Fair. According to Church of Sweden the sadness of Good Friday is now replaced by the joy of Easter Sunday. People light candles in church and greet each other with the ancient Easter greeting "Christ is risen. Yes, he is truly risen."
3. Easter bunnies
On Maundy Thursday, we are used to children knocking on doors dressed as Easter Bunnies, handing out cards and hoping for sweets. We don't really know when the tradition began, but Swedish children have been dressing up as Easter Bunnies since the mid-19th century.
4. Easter rice
At Easter, many people bring in birch trees and decorate them with colourful feathers and eggs. It symbolises the greenery and rebirth of spring, but is also associated with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and the palm leaves strewn before him.
5. Easter decorations
Easter rice is perhaps the most common Easter decoration, but it is also common to decorate with colourful eggs, rabbits, chickens and flowers in Easter colours.
6. Easter games
At least Easter games were common in the past. We have read about egg picking, which is an old game dating back to the Middle Ages. Participants are each given a hard-boiled egg, which they can paint, and then they have to tap the top of the egg against the opponent's egg. The person who avoids damaging their eggshell for the longest time wins.
7. Easter eggs
Easter eggs refer to both painted chicken eggs and large paper eggs filled with sweets. On Easter in Sweden, there are many traditions associated with eggsFor example, painting eggs or pretending that the Easter Bunny has hidden the candy eggs and letting the children look for them.
8. Easter food
When celebrating Easter in Sweden, it is common to set up an Easter buffet, which is often a classic smorgasbord with eggs, herring, salmon, cheese and more. Lamb has also become more popular as an Easter food.
9. Easter candy
Easter candy is perhaps one of our most popular Swedish Easter traditions. Many people give away filled Easter eggs, and chocolate eggs, marzipan chickens and all sorts of other things are also popular.
10. Easter cider
When it is time for Easter in Sweden, many people want to drink Easter must. Every year, Swedes drink around 50 million litres of must. Most of it is drunk at Christmas under the name Christmas must, but Easter comes a close second.
11. Easter bonfire
In the past, in some parts of Sweden, large Easter bonfires were lit on Easter Eve evening. In some places in Sweden, as well as in Finland, it is still a Swedish Easter tradition to light bonfires.
12. Easter holidays and trips
During Easter in Sweden, children have a one-week holiday in connection with Easter, either the week before Easter (Holy Week) or during Easter week itself. Many also have a habit of travelling during the holiday, abroad, to ski resorts or to the countryside.
What are your Swedish Easter traditions?
Which Swedish Easter traditions are important to you? How do you usually celebrate Easter? What will Easter be like for you this year?
All images in the post are borrowed from Pixabay.
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Lena - good for the soul says:
Useful post, as usual!
We usually have some Easter decorations, rice with feathers and some other things. And we usually have an Easter buffet with the families. This year the meetings are cancelled, of course, so as not to risk anything. But I came up with an idea. We will try to meet the parents outside. Take a walk and have a coffee (when everyone brings their own coffee) at some fairly large rest area so you don't sit so close. Then you still get to meet for a while. Hope for good weather so the old people do not freeze.
Hug Lena
02 April 2020 - 6:54
Helena says:
Great idea to meet outside for a while! Hope for good weather!
02 April 2020 - 7:52
Lisa says:
Easter walk with the children looking for Easter eggs laid by the Easter Bunny.
The Easter Bunny has moved with us from Germany where it originated.
02 April 2020 - 7:31
Helena says:
Sounds cosy! 🙂 Yes, we have borrowed a few traditions from Germany 😉.
02 April 2020 - 7:53
Maria / MagnoliaMagis says:
Easter already?! We don't really have any Easter traditions left. There was Easter dinner at grandma and grandpa when they were alive but then it died out with them. I hid Easter eggs (candy) for the children when they were small. Perhaps it will be again when the grandchildren get bigger... The only thing I usually take out for Easter is some eggs painted by my childminder in the 70s and felted Easter cakes after grandma. Grandma was really the one who decorated, changed curtains and tablecloths and kept Easter going. This year it will probably only be me and the husband who get to run around in the forest and play that we go to Blåkulla...;D
02 April 2020 - 8:19
Mr Nils-Åke Hansson says:
As far as I know, they have Easter bonfires in the Bohus area. Daughter as both in the areas around Trollhättan they had the Easter bonfire.
For us, it's about taking it easy.
02 April 2020 - 9:23
Ama de casa says:
Easter is too short for me to decorate (unlike Christmas). I have already bought herring and potatoes and there will be a Jansson too, possibly a cauliflower variant. That's about what our Easter celebration will involve, food - hopefully out on the terrace. Last year it rained away all of Easter here, this year something else is causing it or rather IN it. For example, all Easter parades are of course cancelled.
Easter candy. This year I will probably treat myself to a lot of Easter candy! (Hear how the scale starts shaking out there in the bathroom 😉 ).
Remember once when I got a huge Easter egg from my in-laws. Opened with a big smile on my lips and inside there was a vase... Haha! Do not think I managed to keep the mask there 😀.
02 April 2020 - 10:05
BP says:
We are probably as unbound by tradition as you are. No decorations, no sweets and absolutely no Easter must (yuck) but good food, or even better food than usual;-).
02 April 2020 - 19:48