Advent is latin and means arrival. It is a celebration of the arrival of Jesus, and also a time to prepare for Christmas.
Advent has its historical roots in the 40 day long fasting period that started around Christmas and finished by Easter. Traditionelly it is a time for fasting and preparing for the birth of Jesus.
Four sundays of Advent
Advent goes on for four Sundays, starting with the first Sunday in December (which means that the 4:th Sunday of Advent is X-mas Eve). Each Sunday we light a candle and we also have a special kinds of decorations hanging and/or standing in the windows. You will see this in almost every home across the country.
Sankta Lucia
On December 13 Sankta Lucia visits, bringing light and hope to this dark period of the year. Usually the Swedes start decorating for X-mas around this holiday, but most people won’t decorate their X-mas tree until the night before Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is when the big celebration takes place in Sweden. This is when all children get their christmas presents, when we eat traditional food such as pickled herring, baked ham and Swedish meatballs. Usually we visit family and friends and at night time we might dance around the tree.
Happy holidays!
Photocred: pixabay.com, mabra.se and mittkok.se
© 2021 Petra Roman, PR Text&Bild
Mrs Swede 