In which I celebrate a made-up Swedish holiday

The Swedish are a greedy people. They crave celebration so much that they decided they could not wait two weeks until Christmas, and instead must have a holiday immediately. So they made up Sankta Lucia Day. My understanding is that it was a pagan ritual that celebrated candles and female virginity, to show resilience in the face of the dark winter. When the Catholic missionaries arrived, they too enjoyed candles and female virginity, so they retooled the holiday to be about a Greek martyr. When Catholicism was expelled from Sweden, they just loved the holiday too much to get rid of it, so they continue to celebrate a Greek Catholic saint with candles. Oh well, I mostly like it for the dinner.

My nation hosted a gasque (a Swedish word for formal dinner party) to celebrate Lucia. My friend Patrik stepped in to be my last minute prom date (although I forgot the corsage), and then we were off to enjoy some genuine Swedish festivities.

I apologize for being such a tourist and being so tacky as to photograph what I ate, but it was herring! The appetizer was two (TWO!) types of herring, served with knackebrod, a potato, and a beet salad. One herring was ginger flavored, the other mustard. Herring was much better than I expected, the texture was meaty and not at all offensive. It really wasn't so different from sushi. I think North Americans are overly squeamish about herring, although I've heard that even Swedes hate fermented herring (which I have yet to try.)

The main course was lamb and potato au gratin. Traditionally, Swedes eat a dish called Jonsson's Delight around this time of year, which is a potato casserole made with anchovies. The first time I ate it was rather traumatic, but I've grown to love and hate the thing. Most Swedish food is offensive at first, but it lures you in with repeated tastings.

Finally, they served a saffron cheesecake for dessert. Lots of desserts are saffron flavored for the holidays, even the glugg. Swedish cheesecake (ostkake) is different from New York style cheesecake. Swedish cheesecake has a grain to it, and is similar to marscapone cheese rather than cream cheese. I like all kinds of cheesecake though.

One odd thing is that there are all new beverages for Christmas, including Christmas beer, seen above. Christmas beers are darker and maltier usually, and each brewery produces its own. They're only around for the holidays, and then come back in new labels as Easter beer. They also make Julmust, which is like a spiced Coca-Cola that everyone buys over the holidays. One strange drink is "mumma", which tastes like Julmust and beer mixed together (that might be what it is.)

There is also new Christmas candy, my favorite of which is Juleskum. Skum translates to mean 'foam', but sounds a lot like our word 'scum'. They are little strawberry flavored Santa marshmallows. I ate this bag in one sitting.

Now that Lucia is over, it's on to Christmas, which I will also be spending in Sweden. I like Christmas season a lot in Sweden because it fits to my personal ideal - overwhelmingly commercial and entirely irreilgious. Sweden definitely gives North America a run for its money in sheer commercialism, they even make you buy new beer and soda! I like how Christmas infiltrates every part of Swedish life, which is notable in a country that has the highest proportion of non-religious people. I can certainly relate, because I grew up with secular Christmases that were about Santa rather than Jesus, and the only lessons were from TV specials about vague "Christmas miracles" and "the spirit of the season".

My last month in Europe will definitely be busy, with Berlin, Norway, and Gothenberg on the tentative itinerary.