Posts tagged with "advent"

The countdown to Christmas!

Posted by jennie 5 Comments
Dec 1 2011

Finally! December is here and today we are properly kicking off the countdown to Christmas. Well, this is  not entirely true, since first of Advent was last Sunday (November 27) and that’s the day when most Swedes goes candles-and-stars-mental and decorate every window possible. You know the story, Sweden is pretty dark and miserably around this time of the year and we need light, light and more light to stay sane. This is what my windows look like – very Swedish but the only difference is that here in England, I’m one of few with decorated windows. It’s in other words easy to spot the Swede on the street! Please feel free to comment on our lovely December weather, wet and 10 degrees warm…

It was a man named Oskar Andersson who invented the world’s first electrical candlestick (adventsljusstake) in 1934. These have been custom in most Swedish homes and possibly thanks to IKEA, they are now spreading across the globe. They consist of seven electrical candles, normally put together in a pyramid shape, and can be made of wood, plastic, stee and you can pend an absolute fortune on one if you feel the need. The red flowers are called julstjärna in Sweden (Christmas star) but I believe the correct name is Poinsettia or Christmas rose. A must in the Christmas window!

Another big milestone in the countdown to Christmas is Julkalendern, the Christmas calendar. It is a Advent calendar in the form of a television show starting on the first of December, and ending on Christmas Eve. The show comes with an Advent calendar and after every show, you open a new window. Every episode is 15 minutes long and is shown either early in the morning, at 7.15 am – it’s a great and very cosy way to start the day!  – or in the evening, at 6 .15 pm. It’s a much loved and old tradition; the first Julkalender was first on Swedish TV in 1960 and has been going every year since. The tradition has spread to the other Scandinavian countries and the national radio has its own julkalender as well.  There’s a new story every year, but the show is normally set somewhere in a wintery Sweden and contains either a mystery or even a few ghosts – and tonnes of Christmas spirit! This year’s julkalender is called Tjuvarnas jul (The Christmas of the thieves) and is a classic fairytail in the spirit of Charles Dickens.Read more about it here and make sure to watch it here! Christmas spirit guaranteed

Oh well, I know it’s early but still: God jul for know, dear blog readers!

Bring out your candles and stars – it’s Advent!

Posted by jennie 7 Comments
Nov 26 2010

As all you people know – and might have experienced – end November in Sweden is dark, depressingly dark. Snow is a blessing, since it kind of makes things lighter and brighter (and it’s loads of fun of course) but come this weekend, this awful darkness is about to get a kick in the butt. Right this moment and throughout the whole weekend, windows all over Sweden are getting a drastic makeover. Candles, stars, electrical candlesticks (Adventsljustake/Adventsljusstakar), fairy lights – Sweden are counting down to Christmas and welcome Advent with open arms!

Advent candles are  lit all over the globe this weekend, but since we are desperately in need of more than one light, a clever man named Oskar Andersson invented the world’s first electrical candlestick in 1934. These has been custom in every Swedish home (who celebrate Christmas) ever since and by tonight, you will see them everywhere! They consist of seven electrical candles, normally put together in a pyramid shape, and can be made of wood or plastic. The designs nowadays are completely varied and there’s a electrical candle stick for every taste. And wallet – you can spend an absolute fortune on one if you feel the need to.

But no Advent window is complete without an Advent star, a hanging star made from paper, straw or chip wood with a lightbulb inside. These stars also found its way to Sweden in the 1930s, recalling the star that guided the Three Wise Men. If you are going for the full look for your window, you might add a traditional Advent candlestick with four “real” candles and a few Hellebore/Christmas roses for some colour. And voila! There you have it, a Swedish Advent window, ready to fight the darkness!

Since I’m true Swede to the heart, I’ve dragged my electrical candlestick and Advent star to England and our two front  windows are now Swedified.

Have you decorated your window for Advent? Feel like sharing it with fellow Sweden lovers? Take a picture of it and email it to me on jennie.jageblad@yahoo.com – and I will happily upload them on the blog, in an Advent gallery.

Glad Advent!

First Advent

Posted by Transparent Language 3 Comments
Nov 29 2008

Tomorrow is the First Advent and I dutifully dragged out my Advent lights (the electric kind) only to find out they don’t work. Sometime between last December and today they decided to go to the Advent light heaven, or wherever it is that broken ornaments go. So my first Advent Sunday will be lightless. That’s what you get for being a master procrastinator and waiting till the very last minute.

I must say that setting up the Advent lights is one Swedish tradition I love the most. It’s so warm and welcoming to see them flickering in the windows. Yet the tradition itself is not as ancient as one may think. It became popular in Sweden sometime around the 1920s. Of course, in the beginning people used candles (and I shudder at the thought how many houses must have burned down.) Then in 1934 one Oscar Andersson designed an electric Advent light, it started to be mass produced in 1939, and the rest is history.

Traditionally, there were four Advent candles, and you light one each Advent Sunday. So on the fourth Sunday you end up with one long candle and a shorter one, and an even shorter one, and a very short one.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but traditionally the candles were put in windows facing to the North (something to do with the darkest dark of December) where the candles had a symbolic job of being a “light in the ocean of darkness.”

So, let’s recap in Swedish:

Adventsljusstake, adventsstake, är en ljusstake med fyra levande ljus. Denna används i adventstid. Adventsljus i hemmen blev vanliga i Sverige under 1920-talet och 1930-talet. Ordet adventsstake används även om elektriska ljusstakar med vanligtvis sju ljus i pyramidform. Svensken Oskar Andersson tillverkade världens första elektriska adventsljusstake.

And now I feel like I should at least look for some candles to stick in the window in the meantime. Or go to Ica MAXI tomorrow (it’s open on Sundays) and purchase a proper Advent light.

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