Posts tagged w/ Culture

Jokkmokk marknad 2009 is almost here

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jan
14
2009

As Gimena pointed out it’s almost time for the Sami market in Jokkmokk. And darn, this year I won’t be able to go. I went in 2005 when the market celebrated its 400-year anniversary, and let me tell you, it was really something. Unfortunately, I lost my camera that time… And finding a place to stay was almost impossible. Normally, all the hotels and rooms in private homes are booked well in advance. Yes, the market is THAT popular.

I just called the Jokkmokk tourist office to see how’s it’s going this year, and they told me the town is pretty much fully booked.

Why is the event so popular? This is THE Sami market in the world. And like I mentioned before, it’s been going on for more than 400 years. If you are interested in the Sami culture, there is no better place to visit.


photo: Jokkmokk guiderna

I am particularly upset that I can’t go this year, because one of my favorite Swedish indie bands – Mollet will be playing at the market.

Mollet are six Sami guys from Kiruna, who play what can be described as “garage jojk” or indigenous rock. And yes, they also sing in the Sami language.

They will be playing at the Jokkmokk market on February 6th at 10PM.
You can check out their music on their myspace page. Normally, when I’m driving long distances, you can see, or rather, hear me in the car jojking along to “Olles ija.

OK, now på svenska.

Var ligger Jokkmokk?
Jokkmokk ligger strax norr om polcirkeln, i hjärtat av Lappland.
Jokkmokk är känt för Jokkmokks marknad, som firade 400-årsjubileum i februari 2005, samt för sin roll som en central samisk samlingsplats.


Horse races are for wusses. We have reindeer races in Jokkmokk!

photo: hakimu, creative commons

PS. And don’t you just love saying “Jokkmokk“? It just sort of rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it?

 
Posted under Culture, Geography
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Vecka 2

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jan
6
2009

If you are a new arrival to Sweden, there is something that you will notice almost immediately. Even sooner than immediately (if that’s at all possible) if you have school-age kids.
Or maybe you’ve already noticed it when dealing on-line with various Swedish establishments.

I’m talking about the charming, but vaguely inconvenient to the uninitiated, way in which Swedes use the calendar.

You see, things are counted in weeks over here.
A notice may appear at your local gym proclaiming it closed vecka 28-30, for example. With no dates added. Why no dates? Because almost everybody here knows exactly when weeks 28, 29 and 30 are.

Weeks are numbered on almost all calendars available for sale in Sweden (except for the one I bought at Ica MAXI, but it has cute kitten pictures instead, so it’s a fair trade, in my opinion).

When the weeks are in single digits, it’s easy enough to keep track of them. We are now in week 2 – vecka 2 of 2009. But just wait till summertime rolls around and you will have to decipher when week 28 begins.

Because the weeks are not numbered in my calendar, I printed out this handy chart I found on the internet and stuck it on my fridge.

And as you can see above the chart, even vacation rentals are reserved by week number, and not the actual date.
You will see week numbers on correspondence from your local vårdcentral (health clinic), library, your kids’ school, on announcements from all sorts of organizations, including Migrationsverket, and even on supermarket circulars.

So, in other words, week numbers = important stuff in Sweden.

 
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The Days Between

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
28
2008

Between what? Christmas and New Year’s, naturally!

I don’t know about you, but I am positively glad that Christmas is finally over. No more coming up with excuses to avoid eating lutefisk (lutfisk in Swedish, but “lutefisk” in English, OK?). Yay! And no more julskinka (Christmas ham). Yay! (The one we were treated to this year was particularly salty, more so than in previous years.) Unfortunately now all the leftover julskinka will go on sale and that means that my neighbor will buy about as many as her freezer can hold. And then she will keep inviting us over for dinner. Arrgh… She’s a sweet, older lady, and she lives alone and I just don’t have the heart to say “no” to her. So, we will politely go, bring cookies or a pie with us, and be subjected to julskinka until about Easter.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about today. I wanted to talk about mellandagarna.
Why? Because if you are shopoholic like me, this is a very important time of the year, indeed. Why? Sales!!!

You see, the days between Christmas and New Year’s are called mellangarna, which literally means “the between days.”

  • mellan – middle, between

and

  • dag (def. dagen, pl. dagar, pl.def. dagarna) - day

Depending on how many weekdays there are during this time, it’s traditional to use up your remaining vacation/holiday days off during this period. Otherwise, depending on your company’s policy, you may lose them when the year ends. So, some people sit at home and rest after the excesses of julbord, some people book a sunny getaway to the Canary Islands or elsewhere. And some people, like me, go shopping!

You see, mellandagarna is also synonymous with after-Christmas sales. And we like sales, right? Especially in this unhappy economy.

So, now in Swedish:

  • Mellandagarna är traditionellt stora rea-dagar.


Hmmm… I wonder why I suddenly need a new pair of winter boots. Hmmm…

 
Posted under Culture, Vocabulary
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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. :)

 
Posted under Culture, Vocabulary
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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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