Vår är här!

Spring has arrived in Uppsala! We had almost a week of solid sunshine until yesterday when it clouded over (but no rain!) Spring brought everyone out to the river and it seemed like every shop in town started to sell ice cream. If you didn't know better you would think that no one works in the city...but then again, it is a city comprised of 40,000 university students, so maybe it's not that far from the truth.

I celebrated my b-day on Saturday and we had a fun time with friends from around the world - Sweden, U.S., Canada and Australia. We hit a night-club in town and it was pretty popular so we made a good choice. Here are a few pics from the evening (including one of our deck with the flowers we planted)!



So this week we have what is called a "Red Day". Red days are every Sunday and then stat holidays. They pretty much mean days that you usually don't work. Before every red day (holidays not Sundays), people generally get a half-day off of work, and since they only have a half day they usually take a whole day. This week since the Red Day is May 1st which is a Thursday most people will take Friday off too, which means that this is a very short work week for lots of people.

May 1st is called Valborg in Swedish. After doing a little searching I discovered (thanks Wikipedia) that Valborg is derived from St. Walpurga, a woman who was born in Wessex in 710, moved to Germany and joined a nunnery and then became a saint upon her death. She actually died on Feb. 25th but her relics were moved to their resting location on May 1st and thus the day, which had traditionally been a pagan festival celebrating the start of spring became intertwined with a Christian holiday (which has happened with a lot of pagan holidays). In the Norse tradition, May 1st celebrated the time when Odin died to retrieve the knowledge of the runes (but I haven't looked this story up yet). It was said to be a time of weakness between the living and the dead. And one of the traditions is to have large bonfires to ward of the sprits that roam the Earth that day.

In Uppsala, the last day of April, or sista april is also highly celebrated by the students of Uppsala. The tradition is to have a champagne breakfast in someone's home. Then to go down to the river, where students have built rafts and ride over the rapids/weir in a competition. Then the mob moves to the hill by the castle where everyone imbibes in a picnic lunch of shnapps, sill (herring), potatis (potatoes), köttbullar (meatballs), and probably other Swedish delicacies . The presidents of the two universities, Uppsala Universitet och SLU, both give speeches in front of the large library at the top of the hill, and then all the students throw their traditional white student hats (look like captains hats) into the air. The afternoon then continues with concerts, singing and partying into the wee hours at the Nations houses (somewhat like frats - but co-ed and representing different regions of Sweden).

I found this photo on Wikipedia (its a bit grainy but you can see the church and the white hats of the students)





We plan to partake in some of the activities but more so for the experience! We have a bbq to attend that evening so it will be more laid back for us.

Hope you are enjoying the spring wherever you are!

E.