Swedish Easter

I am not a Christian and I had no clue about Easter celebrations before this year. Though Swedes claim themselves to be not religious, they celebrate so many religious holidays so seriously: e.g. my previous post about 'Lucia Day' and now Easter!

The Swedes claim that they started to celebrate Easter even before Jesus was born. Because they celebrate Spring through celebrate Easter! (???!!!) Look at the picture on the left, the tree branches with colored feathers tied on them. This is a typical decoration every house has around Easter time. This is to celebrate that chickens will be laying eggs in spring time! (Apparently, in old times, chickens are not laying eggs all year around. I am not sure if this explananation is credible.) That is why people put such a decoration at home. Then of course, Easter eggs.

My morning on 7th started with searching for the Easter egg. I heard usually they are hidden under the mud in the gardens. Aron's mum had mercy on us. I found my egg in a basket full of dolls. And then, it continued with eating eggs during lunch, dinner and then again the second the day. One piece of important info here: the Swedes eat boiled eggs with Kaviar - enormously yummy!

The Easter dinner I had was full of traditional Swedish food: raw herring, meat balls (Swedish meat balls are the yummiest in the world) and sausages, boiled potatoes with lingonberry sauce, etc. Aron's family was a very relaxed one. Nobody dressed up for the dinner. However, Maria (Johansson, my flatmate) took her official dinner dress home for the Easter dinner. This is a detail needs some highlight - Easter dinner with your family in official dinner gawns!

So much observations to record for now. The 4 day's break was way too short because it broke the normal weekdays VS weekends rythemn but not long enough for you to rest enough and seek for going back. Well...better than no break! Most of all, thanks to Aron, I learnt how to ride a bicycle! (Note: not all Chinese can bike. Though when you think of China, you think of a very smoggy city with hundreds of people on their bikes! It is true though - Beijing is like this!!! :P) The next step for me is to learn swimming!

Rainbow after the Rain

'Rainbow after the Rain' in Chinese is often used to describe after going through all the tough times, something good finally happens. We often say, you only get to see the rainbow after the rain. This sounds like Hollywood movies. Nevertheless, the positive spirit of looking forward to the 'rainbow' during the rain is definitely needed.

I believe this is what drives Swedes passing through their winters. It is long, grey, mostly dark and quite cold. But the reward is a bright spring, warm (above 10 celcus is warm here!) and sunny! I have some observations on myself.

1. Waking up in a bright morning at 7am is a very good start. It makes me smile. It gives me the energy to start a new day instead of being lazy and let the phone snooze in another 10 minutes.

2. Then I start to think about what I should wear every day. This has less to do with my vanity but more with the great weather which brings a great mood. I am very strict about wearing spring clothes and not winter outfits because WINTER IS OVER!!!

3. Every morning, when I was on the bus, driving along 'Stadsgården' (the city garden, which is actually a bus lane along the south island, then you get a view of the water between Gamla Stan and Södermalm), I cannot help saying to myself once again: man, Stockholm is so beautiful. And what a waste that I have to go to work! =( I realized that I am conditioned to think that, if Stockholm ever has a good day, we should use it for outdoor activities than staying indoor.

4. What can I do today after work? Though daylight becomes a lot longer: from 6am till 8pm. I do not have the illusion that I need to stay longer at work because it is still light outside at 5pm. Instead, it activated me to plan activities after work before sun sets. A fika (a typical Swedish thing as I have wrote in my previous post, meet your friend over a coffee) outdoor is the best thing after work.

5. I check 'weather.com' like crazy! When you have such good weather after a depressing 4 months of winter, you become greedy. I not only want to live the current moment with sunshine and warmth, I want everyday from now on to be only sunnier and warmer! It seems that this weekend, Stockholm is going to be sunny, warm (17 degree!) and not too windy. Perfect weather for walking around the city and having picnic.


Before I end, this is to my friends and myself who are seeking for a better future: Spring will eventually come. After a long winter, we will appreciate spring a lot more!