Posts tagged w/ christmas

Julafton!!!

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
24
2008

It’s julafton (Christmas eve) and in Sweden it means many things, but the most important of them all will start at 3PM on SVT1. Kalle Anka!!! The sacred Swedish Christmas tradition!

How did Donald Duck become a staple of Swedish Christmas cheer, I am not really sure. Nobody is. But the fact is, it’s not really a proper Swedish Christmas without Kalle Anka.

It’s not really Christmas without a fully loaded julbord, either. Because we are picky eaters, we have a modified julbord – we’re not fans of lutefisk in this house.

But a traditional julbord should include:

  • -    julskinka (Christmas ham)
  • -    julkorv (Christmas sausage)
  • -    sylta (a very odd thing, which I actually quite like, known in English either as “head cheese” or “brawn” but it’s not cheese, and the head in question belonged either to a calf or pig, OK?)
  • -    köttbullar (meatballs)
  • -    prinskorv (more sausage, this one is normally fried)
  • -    inlagd sill (pickled herring)
  • -    strömming (more herring)
  • -    lax (salmon)
  • -    lutefisk (eh, that thing, which is fish cured in lye)
  • -    rödbetssallad (red beet salad) and other mostly pickled veggies
  • -    potatis, boiled, dilled, or a as a salad.
  • -    and of course risgrynsgröt (rice pudding). My friend’s grandma makes the best risgrynsgröt ever, and since I normally don’t eat dairy products, coming from me, this is a huge compliment, indeed.

Even though Sweden is a relatively small country (when compares to the US, for example), different regions have their own regional varieties of julbord food, too. In Norrland, it’s not uncommon to find moose or reindeer meat dishes amongst all the fish and pork and beef.

And now, if you excuse me, det är dags för Kalle Anka och hans vänner. And presents, because in Sweden we give Christmas presents on the 24th.

God Jul till alla mina läsare!!!

I’ll see you here again on December 27th!

image: Wikipedia, because I’m not that ambitious as a cook. :)

 
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Julbocken and Other News

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
21
2008

I received several emails from the readers asking me what I thought about the riots in Malmö. So, what did I think about the riots? Absolutely nothing. It barely registered on our radars here in Norrland. Much more exciting news is that Lindex is going to open a store in Lycksele next year – at least I know that Ceci will appreciate it, as she’ll be heading to Lycksele next spring.

Another important news is that as of December 15, 2008 people from outside the EU can come to Sweden for a limited time and look for a job. Especially needed are medical professionals, engineers, and other highly qualified people. But it’s a catch-22 situation, really. Most new arrivals don’t speak Swedish and to get a job in those highly specialized fields good Swedish skills are essential. Some say it’s really odd that Sweden is opening its job market when the unemployment rates are soaring and companies are going bankrupt.

But let’s return to Lyckselse for a moment. The Lycksele goat was set on fire last Friday.
No worries, it wasn’t a live goat, only a straw one. And it wasn’t as big as the most famous Christmas goat erected every year in Gävle. Normally, it’s the Gävle goat that gets torched, but this year its northern cousin has been burned.


Gävlebocken 2006. Image: Wikipedia.

“A Christmas goat?” I hear you say. Yep. Julbocken. It’s a leftover from the old pagan tradition where the god Thor used to ride in a chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. (I mean, goats? A chariot? And here I thought that Thor was a fierce and important god.)

But that’s how the tradition of straw goats had originated. Some towns, like Gävle and Lycksele, construct their own massive straw goats, which is just an invitation for crazy pyromaniacs to set them on fire. But if you want your very own straw goat, you can buy yourself a miniature version. They’re sold almost everywhere before Christmas, from simple ones at julmarknader to more fancy versions at normal shops.


Straw goats at julmarknad in Umeå last year.

So, in Sweden, Christmas means a straw goat and Donald Duck on tv. But we’ll talk about Donald Duck on Christmas eve next time.

 
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Julmarknad and “skriva ihop”

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
16
2008

This year, because I was away, I missed our local julmarknad. No big deal, really, because it’s tiny and not all that interesting (went last year, and the year before, and the year before-before, and so on) and held only during one weekend at our local skansen-type attraction – Gammlia. Yet, the official city hall statistics say that this year over 32 000 people visited the julmarknad. Which means either it was super-fabulous, or simply shows you just how little else is there to do in December.


Taken at least year’s mini-julmarknad downtown.

Anyway, what’s “julmarknad”? A Christmas market, of course.

  • jul (def. julen, pl. jular, def. pl. jularna) – en högtid som firar Kristi födelse kring 25 december - Christmas
  • marknad (def. marknaden, pl. marknader, def. pl. marknaderna) - ställe där folk samlas för att köpa och sälja saker – market

You add these two words together and end up with “julmarknad.” Easy, isn’t it?
And do you notice how this “double” word is written together, without a space between the compound nouns? Most of those “new” words made by putting together other words are written “together.” Of course, there are exceptions, after all we wouldn’t need to learn any grammar whatsoever if there were no exceptions the rules, right?

So, this rule in Swedish is drilled into kids as “skriva ihop” meaning simply “write together.” Luckily, Swedish is a lot more sensible than German and rarely will you see those massive words than can go on for a whole line of text.

Here are other “written together” words appropriate for the season:

  • julafton – Christmas eve, Dec 24.
  • julbock – traditional Christmas goat (made out of straw)
  • julbord – Christmas buffet
  • juldag – Christmas day
  • julgran – Christmas tree
  • julgransbelysning – Christmas tree lights (this word consists of not two, but three separate nouns: jul+gran+belysning)
  • julklapp – Christmas present
  • julkort – Christmas card
  • jullov – Christmas (school) break
  • julmust – traditional Swedish soft drink that people drink during Christmas time, personally can’t stand the thing, tastes a bit like root beer.
  • jultomte – Santa Claus
  • jultid – Christmas time

And how do you figure out if these nouns are “en” or “ett”? Quite simple. The last word in the compound noun rules. So, “julafton” is an “en” noun, but “julbord” is an “ett” noun.

Oh, and one more thing. Notice that “jul” in Swedish doesn’t have to be capitalized. In English we write “Christmas.” In Swedish, it’s simply “jul.”

 
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