Just like Christmas, Easter is a real family celebration in Sweden. The Swedes celebrate Easter somewhat differently than we do. They don’t have an Easter bunny but Easter witches, they play jokes with each other and they also get time off on Good Friday.

Glad Påsk

Happy Easter in Swedish is Glad Påsk. At Easter, Swedes decorate eggs and hang colored feathers on Easter branches in their homes. And they eat a lot and have a lot of sweets and chocolate.

For those who learn Swedish:

• Happy Easter: Glad Påsk
• Maundy Thursday: Skärtorsdagen
• Good Friday: långfredagen
• Holy Saturday: påskafton
• Easter witches: påskkärringar
• Twigs with colored feathers/easter twigs: påskris

Easter in Sweden: what have witches to do with it?

On Holy Saturday (the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday) the children dress up as Easter witches and go from door to door. They sing songs and hand out drawings. In exchange, they are rewarded with sweets. So the Swedish Easter Witch is a cute version and not a scary witch anymore.

The adult version of the witches at Easter in Sweden goes like this: on Good Friday, the young men gently tap the ladies with a twig until they are offered an alcoholic drink. On Easter Sunday it is up to the ladies to hit the gentlemen with the twigs.

The Easter witch tradition is said to date back to the Middle Ages when hundreds of women were executed in Sweden for witchcraft. It was once believed that the witches flew on their brooms to Blåkulla Island on Maundy Thursday to meet with the devil. On Holy Saturday there are many Easter fires that, according to tradition, were supposed to keep the witches at bay. Nowadays there also often fireworks. The witches returned on Holy Saturday. To make sure there was none in your chimney, you had to burn 9 different branches on Easter Sunday before lighting your fireplace.

Easter buffet

Although Easter no longer has any religious significance for most Swedes, the majority of Swedes do celebrate Easter. Like Christmas, it is a real family celebration. The buffet can also be compared to the julbord. Only the julkinken or the Christmas ham has been replaced by eggs. Most of the Easter buffet are egg dishes. Furthermore, herring and salmon are of course there too. Janssons frestelse is also a dish that is often served at Easter.

Extended weekend

The Easter weekend is an extended weekend for a lot of people. Easter Monday is an official holiday in Belgium and the Netherlands. On Good Friday, most of us (except for the banks, I think) have to work. In Sweden, that’s different and Easter Sunday, Easter Monday and Good Friday are official holidays. (An overview of all Swedish holidays and public holidays can be found here.)

Dymmelsons dagen

On April 1, we play jokes. April fools. But in Sweden this is on the Wednesday before Easter. This day is called Dymmelsons dagen in Swedish. The word doesn’t seem to translate literally but would be something like “joke Wednesday”. Hanging a note on someone’s back without them noticing, something that is also popular with us on April 1, is a typical thing for Dymmelon days. When we shout “April fools!”, The Swedes say: “April april din dumma sill, jag kan lura dig vart jag vill“.

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We know it all too well: the slush that remains after it has snowed but it is just not cold enough for the snow to remain. In Swedish they call this slush ‘slask’.

Puddles of slush at the crosswalk

Let me take Stockholm as an example. If it does snow there, it is often not cold enough for the snow to stay for a long time. And when that snow starts to melt, a dirty gunk quickly forms on the sidewalk: slask or slush. Believe me, you don’t want to go through that with your nice shoes or low sneakers.

I am a fan of the crossings in Stockholm (and the rest of Sweden): there is an inclined path almost everywhere so that you can easily get off the sidewalk with a trolley, wheelchair or buggy. Unfortunately, these are also places where slush accumulates quickly. So pay attention and take a big jump or cross the road next to it.

Slask / slush proof shoes

In the winter months it is certainly on my packing list when I travel to Sweden: warm but especially waterproof shoes. I chose a pair of comfortable sneakers with lining. They are a bit higher than the average sneaker so that they are also slask / slush proof. In the sneakers I still put wool soles so that my feet stay extra warm.

Even when I travel to Östersund or Lapland in the winter, for example, I take these sneakers with me. Always handy for short walks to the store or for the journey there. Easy so I don’t have to put on my snow boots on the train.

If I am going on a city trip to Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö in the winter, my slask / slush proof sneakers will of course also travel with me. Even if no snow is forecast! Because they are waterproof, they are also useful on rainy days.

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