Melodifestivalen, the Swedish contest to pick a song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, is run as a series of semi finals and a final. The first semi final is tonight, apparently. While I'm completely uninterested in the whole concept, it doesn't bother me much -- I am not forced to watch it after all. But I do find it slightly offensive that it is spoken about as if it something that interests the overwhelming majority of the Swedes, when that is patently not true. Being curious, I checked the viewer ratings for last year's Melodifestivalen, and found that the semi final which had the biggest audience had about 2.3 million viewers, while the final had the largest number of viewers ever: about 4.2 million. That is not quite 47% of the population of Sweden: a very very impressive number of people to be sure, and kudos to the producers since they have obviously created somehing that many people want to watch.

But not even GW Bush could claim that forty-six point something percent is an overwhelming majority.

Labels: Swedish stuff

 
My Christmas holiday is winding down. I went to the department today, saw my tutor briefly and discussed my time plan. Once back home, I started tidying up my reference lists and making todo lists. Tomorrow I'll start writing again.

I feel fairly good about the thesis right now. I think I can finish it on time - more or less. I feel less sanguine about the quality of my research, though. Sometimes I don't think what I'm doing is relevant at all. But at the moment I'm not too panicked about that.

Ho hum. Here is a good link regardless of your nationality: The Local, English-language news from Sweden. Only from Sweden, and by a team of native English-speaking editors who live here (mainly expatriate Brits, I think). I enjoy reading The Local for many reasons - their articles are well-written and usually well-researched; even if the news are the same I get in DN the language factor makes it seem as if the perspective is somehow different; and knowing that Sweden is very small and very insignificant it nevertheless feels good to be able to point to news articles (not to mention in-depth articles about Swedish society, culture, traditions, science, politics...) for the benefit of foreign friends. Read The Local, it's a good newspaper. Especially if you're a forriner.

Labels: links, personal, Swedish stuff, thesis

 
Today I read in the papers...

...that there will be a 20 km/h speed limit for bicycles in parts of Stockholm.
...that Carl Linnæus was actually born in 1706, not 1707 (the error probably stems from as far back as 1753, when the Julian calendar was abandoned for the Gregorian one) and so the big celebrations planned for next year will happen this year instead.
...that the recent Archbishop election may have to be declared invalid, since the previous Archbishop's sister was one of the candidates. A never-repelled law from the late 17th century decrees that if possible, the position of Archbishop of Uppsala should remain within the family of the previous Archbishop. So there should never have been an election -- Rev. Hammar should automatically succeed her brother.
...that on Monday when analogue TV transmissions cease in the Uppsala area, one can still watch analogue TV using one of a number of secret frequencies. (To find out these frequencies, send a SMS to the local paper.)
...that the Pope made a flying visit to a school in southern Sweden the other day.

April, April, thou stupid herring. (Yep, that is what we say in Swedish -- it's true!)

Labels: fun, Swedish stuff

 
I give you... the Dala moose. To quote the manufacturer: "Quite an unusal item which leaves few unaffected!"

(If you have no idea what a dala horse is, you may want to take a look here, but it's not required.)

Labels: fun, Swedish stuff

 
Right, so this is a) only funny if you know Swedish and b) rather rude. It will help having some knowledge of the Värmland dialect as well (more specifically, in the ways that it is lexically similar to Norwegian).

This was published in Expressen a few days ago. My colleague Kicki (who does have some knowledge of the Värmland dialect) showed it to me, and we wondered together if that was the same edition of the rag in question that was published in Karlstad? Yes, knowing a bit about language is important...

Labels: fun, linguistics, Swedish stuff

 
Glad midsommar!

Labels: Swedish stuff

 
Funny... I had this dream last night where a bunch of angry people came climbing in through our window demanding that I post to my blog. Today's word, boys and girls, is megalomania.

Anyway. Apologies for not writing the promised last part of the Walpurgis description yesterday; I had to write this job application... We woke up at about 9:30 this morning, consequently we have neither champagne breakfasted nor watched the boats. But it is still Valborg!

When Orphei Drängar have finished singing, the day continues with aimless wanderings and mingling; bumping into friends you haven't seen for years and not managing to find the people you have decided a rendez-vous with -- in short, it is a time for care-free strolling. Or for hurried running through the rain to the nearest shelter, of course. Many people picnic or have barbecues, again depending on the weather of course; after all it is still April and some years it snows.

At 9pm, there is more singing; this time it takes place by the castle, under the Gunilla belltower. The student choir Allmänna sången comes out from their ball in the castle to perform, and the head of the student unions holds a speech about spring. Very rarely it is a worthwhile speech, once in a while it is downright embarrassing but usually it's merely predictable, which is not such a terrible thing after all. Also in the evening, the bonfires are lit, and for those who don't care so much about the traditions of academia, they are the main symbol of the magical evening of Valborg, Walpurgis, whose name comes from Saint Walburga.

But not everybody finds Valborg attractive. As I have hinted at several times already, it is a very alcohol-fuelled day, which of course means that too many people will be drinking too much. For a lot of teen-agers, Valborg is the first occasion they get really drunk, which I find sad indeed. And many students also have too, too much to drink, because it is tradition, and end up sleeping under a shrubbery at 11am, or throwing up and miserable while around them the joyful celebration goes on. The merry picnickers often just leave their litter behind; Castle Hill is a disgraceful sight at the end of the day.

Despite this, I still love this day. Even if I don't do much of what you are 'supposed' to do (today I believe we'll probably just go to the cap-waving and singing, and then stroll around for a bit -- oh, and we'll eat herring of course, but not in any organised form with schnapps ditties) the mere fact of its arriving despite the cold darkness of the preceding winter is enough.

Labels: Swedish stuff

 
The lunch at Walpurgis is a celebration of the wonder that is pickled herring. Served with potaties, sour cream and chives, various kinds of pickled herring form the basis of a thousand luncheon parties in Uppsala on the last day of April. Children, brothers-in-law, foreigners and other sensitive people may be excused from the herring; it is a pity though, for it really is very nice fare. It is also traditional to drink schnapps, and this is where the singing comes in: for each toast, a ditty is sung; just about everybody knows the more common schnapps songs, and learning new ones is always a fun pastime if your tastes lean in that direction.

Now, the most important event of the day takes place below the university library at 3pm. Tens of thousands of people gather in the street and all the way down the hill, as well as on Castle hill and the street leading to the Cathedral. On the stroke of 3, the university chancellor, who is standing on the library balcony, waves his white student cap; his greeting is returned by the sea of people below waving their caps for a minute or two and then putting them on. All of a sudden the brown, blonde, black throng of heads turns into a mass of white; it is really quite extraordinary. For me, this moment is when spring arrives, regardless of how warm it has been in the preceding weeks or if it is snowing on the day...

You have donned your white cap; now where do you go? There are two alternatives: you can join the mass of students running down the library hill towards the centre of town ("running" may not be the best word for it -- it is an inexorably moving mass of humanity, the pace is slow but they are not to be stopped; this is the 'champagne race' to the student pubs) or you can join the more sober crowd going to listen to the male choir Orphei Drängar greeting spring in the auditorium. You won't get a seat inside, but there are huge loudspeakers outside the university building, and the court in front of it fills with cheerful people all intent on hearing the traditional, well-worn but well-loved songs for an hour or so.

Tomorrow: The evening's festivities -- and the reverse of the medal.

Labels: Swedish stuff

 
Apparently not everybody is familiar with the concept of Walpurgisnacht; let me hasten to remedy this situation in three easy lessons.

Walpurgis (or Walburga, or Valborgsmäss as we say) is the day we celebrate spring. Living in a country with a long, dark and cold winter makes you rather partial to the time of year when the days get longer and warmer and the world starts living again. On Walpurgisnacht this is celebrated throughout Sweden by the lighting of bonfires in the evening; in Uppsala however the whole day is a feast-day, mostly for the students but the rest of us get to join in as well.

There are several traditional components in a Real Walpurgis Celebration. Many of them I haven't done personally... you can pick the ones you fancy. The day starts with breakfast at early o'clock; this is supposed to contain porridge and champagne, and sometimes also herring. The porridge is there because it is an alcohol-fuelled day and you really need a good breakfast... At 10am, the silly boat parade down the river Fyris commences. Students have built boats, rafts and other floatation devices and go down the two waterfalls to the cheering of the masses -- people line the river five or six deep on both sides and from every window hang bunches of onlookers. I used to watch this religiously every year but haven't made much of an effort to do so these last few years despite the fact that we lived very close to the river; waiting for an hour in that sort of crowd is not all that fun after all, and when you've seen 30 boats capsize in the waterfall by the old mill, you've really seen them all.

Thus endeth the first lesson. Tomorrow: Singing for the herring, waving the cap and running down the hill. . .

Labels: Swedish stuff

 
Sten sent me a list of the various spellings of the "sh"-sound in Swedish. Some of them only occur in loan words and thus don't really count if you're a purist, but it is nevertheless a most interesting and impressive list, and it makes me happy to contemplate it.


ch chef
che apache
g geni
ge bagage
gi religiös
ige beige
j jour
je damejeanne
sc crescendo
sch schack
sh shunt
shi fashionabel
si division
sj sju
sk skön
skj skjorta
ssi mission
ssj ryssja
stg västgöte
sti suggestion
stj stjärna
ti station

Labels: fun, Swedish stuff