Advent – the countdown to Christmas
About four weeks before Christmas, the first Sunday of Advent kicks off the countdown to Christmas. That’s when people light the first candle in the Advent candlestick, a custom going back to the 1890s.
This is always a special event, eagerly awaited. Each Sunday until Christmas, a candle is lit (and blown out after a while), until all four candles are alight. And on each of these Sundays, many Swedes enjoy glögg – a hot, spicy mulled wine with blanched almonds and raisins – and pepparkakor (gingerbread biscuits).
With every Sunday of Advent, the children’s expectations grow. On the telly, there is a special Christmas calendar show for the young with 24 episodes that runs from 1 to 24 December. It, too, serves as a countdown to the big day.
The perfect Christmas tree?
A few days before Christmas Eve, Swedes venture forth to look for the perfect Christmas tree. This is a serious matter − the tree is the very symbol of Christmas, and it must be densely and evenly branched, and straight. If you live in a city or town, you buy the tree in the street or square.
Those who live in the country fell their Christmas trees themselves. Many Swedes believe − mistakenly − that their legal right of access to the countryside allows them to fetch a tree from the woods wherever they like.
Trees are decorated according to family tradition. Some are bedecked with flags, others with tinsel and many with coloured baubles. Electric lights are usually preferred to candles on the tree because of the risk of fire.
Homes are also decorated with wall hangings depicting brownies and winter scenes, with tablecloths in Christmas patterns, and with candlesticks, little Santa Claus figures and angels. The home is filled with the powerful scent of hyacinths.
At three o’clock, many Swedes turn on the TV to watch a cavalcade of Disney film scenes that have been shown ever since the 1960s without anyone tiring of them. Only then can the celebrations begin in earnest, some say.
