Enjoying Easter Swedish style.

• Author: Skog, Carol Elizabeth
• Position: WORDS & IMAGES

IN SWEDEN, what do head scarves, birch branches, rosy cheeks, eggs, long skirts, daffodils, brooms, feathers, and copper coffee pots all have in common with witches, the color yellow, and bonfires?--all form cultural elements of traditional Swedish Easter customs.

Swedish Pagan Vikings converted to the Christian faith slowly. These Norsemen mingled ancient ceremonies with folklore beliefs. The blended customs developed into a variety of Easter celebrations still enjoyed today. Swedish people tenaciously hold appreciative their festive traditions. Family bonds are important--young children and elderly adults together ritualistically embrace their long-enjoyed heritage customs into contemporary Easter fests.

Spring is the harbinger of Earth's rejoiced awakening--the planet is renewed and refreshed. Pagans would gather winter's downed forest branches, piling them high into mounds before igniting bonfires, which helped cleanse woodland debris. Ancient mingling of pagan behaviors and Christian observances blended the Swedish folk custom of the stack's burning. According to folklore, the large burning stack warded evil away from East

Swedish folklore maintained that witches possessed evil powers. A 1480 painting depicts three witches holding drinking horns, awaiting the Devil's filling them with a magic drink. During the 1600s and 1700s, villagers identified many Swedish women as witches, as we did in America. However, in Swedish folklore, the witches took part in Easter, apparently putting their un-Godly capabilities on hold --or did they?

For the seven days before Easter, formally known as Quiet or Holy Week, folk beliefs maintained that witches' evil came astir. Superstitious people guarded or hid their broomsticks after every use to prevent witches from stealing them. On Maundy [Holy] Thursday, witches rode out of chimneys high into the sky with a black cat and copper coffee pot. Flying to Blakulla [Blue Hill], they partied and danced for three days with the Devil, led by the cacophony, chatter, and cackles of black magpies. Dancing faster drove witches dizzy, resulting in their doing or saying things backwards. Back then, doing or reciting things backwards was considered a test--proving one a real witch.

Since the early 1800s, Swedish children have drawn Happy Easter cards for their neighbors. Dressed up in long, colorful skirts, cheeks colored with red circles and noses speckled with dotted freckles, with scarves and shawls covering their...