This should really be for tomorrow, but there is no harm in being ready for travel a wee bit early.
On Easter Saturday Swedes have bonfires. At a glance they will seem to be for grilling hot dogs, but they are really there to scare off witches. Yes. Not very nice, when you think about it.
In Sweden we have Easter witches (påsk-kärringar) and they traditionally fly to Blåkulla on Easter Saturday. Why, and where that is, I have no idea.
Little girls dress up as witches and knock on doors, expecting to be paid or given sweets. (This way children get ‘Halloween’ twice.) They generally look cute, rather than scary or ugly. A bit like me.
We also have Easter decorations, and once you’re done with the millions of chickens and feathers and eggs, it’s witches. I have some nice ones that I grew up with, although they look rather the worse for wear.
And along with the hot dogs, we have fireworks. So that’s scared dogs and Guy Fawkes all at the same time.
So what are the boys doing while their sisters get all the treats?
Ahem, actually, boys look quite sweet wearing scarves and with rouge on their cheeks… Young ones, only. I suppose it’s only the very young who do it. Being a girl myself I never considered the plight of boys.
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We have bonfires on Saturday? 🙂 You are not thinking av Valborg, April 30?
Påskbrasor are what southerners (at least) use to get rid of their witches. Either you are too refined in the capital or you don’t light up in the middle of a city.
Witches for Easter? Well, at least that confirms some of my prej… ehm, what a truly original idea – though they belong to Midsummer Eve (my dear mother´s birthday – though her spells seem to work all the year round).
I think we have different Midsummer Eves, but as a matter of fact it was also the birthday of mother-of-witch. When I taught English in Hastings one summer we had at least three Midsummer Eves; the ‘real’ one, the Swedish one and the Danish one.
Come on – I lived in the countryside as well, and no Easter bonfires! Never heard of them. Is it a habit in Skåne?
Anyway, Easter is over, and it snowed again for a couple of hours today.
This is going to turn into another kale soup, isn’t it? And it’s Halland!
Ah, Halland! Always nice to learn new things. In Norway, they have bonfires on Midsummer.
Proof:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Påskbrasa
http://www.hbl.fi/text/inrikes/2010/4/3/w45235.php
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=128&artikel=3603538
http://www.arjang.se/sv/Kommunen/Forvaltningar–Avdelningar/Raddningstjanst/Paskbrasor-/
http://jnytt.se/nyhet/31191/kommunen-tander-pa-under-pask
How corrected stand I.
Now – the e-mail!
Not easy to have any “påskbrasor” around here these days. Did not even see a “påskakärring” ! Well at my preeschool we had on “skärtorsdagen” and we where looking for the egg that the Easterbunny had hidden!
A belated Happy Easter to you
Now the snow is gone here, had visitors in the garden, the deer took my irisflowers and my pansies! Grrr
Have a good day
Kram Tina
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