Category Archives: Typical Swedish

The Swedish flag

The national flag of Sweden was adopted June 22, 1906. It has a rather unique design seeing that there are only three other nation flags (Kazakhstan, Palau and Ukraine) using the same color scheme. The Swedish national flag was adopted in 1906 and is, currently, one of four flags with a yellow and blue colorContinueContinue reading “The Swedish flag”

Saffron buns for Advent

As the four Sundays of advent are getting closer many Swedes welcome the opportunity to bake “lussebullar” (in English saffron buns). Photo: ica.se However, saffron has a quite distinct flavor that people tend to either like or dislike. It is also an extremely expensive (as well as exclusive) spice, seeing that it takes over 150ContinueContinue reading “Saffron buns for Advent”

The Swedish language

The Swedish language consists of approximately 126 000 words according to SAOL (Svenska Akademiens Ordlista). This can be compared to the English language which consists of around 750 000 words, with new ones added on a weekly basis. The Swedish alphabet There are 29 letters in the Swedish alphabet, which is a form of theContinueContinue reading “The Swedish language”

Emil in Lönneberga

This year marks the 60th anniversary for “Emil i Lönneberga” and the first book ever to be published about the blond Swedish boy. Astrid Lindgren’s character Emil Svensson, illustrated by Björn Berg This is Emil in Lönneberga Emil in Lönneberga is a story about a 5-year old boy living in the countryside farm Katthult, aContinueContinue reading “Emil in Lönneberga”

Feast of Lent

Fettisdagen, also known as Fat Tuesday, originates from the Christian “feast of Lent”. The purpose is to eat plenty of fat food before Easter. In Sweden Fettisdagen is celebrated some time between February 3:d and March 9:th, supposedly 40 days before Easter. Since Easter is eans it is celebrated some time between February 3:d -ContinueContinue reading “Feast of Lent”

Buying alcohol in Sweden

Did you know that you can’t buy beverages with more than 3.5 % alcohol in a regular supermarket anywhere in Sweden? In fact you won’t be able to buy alcohol in any other store either, except for Systembolaget (or ”Systemet”, as Swedes often call it). Systembolaget – the state owned alcohol monopoly Let me tellContinueContinue reading “Buying alcohol in Sweden”