Tuesday, April 14, 2009

easter in gothenburg

we were invited by Lars and Ebba (lars is an old college friend of jeff's... he's from here in gothenburg) to their house on the lake for and easter smorgasbord. the table was beautiful and the food was great. there were some traditional swedish holiday foods (herring and meatballs) and lots of other great things. the quiche (they call it 'paj' pronounced 'pie') was exceptional. but nothing beat the company. Lars and Ebba are great, and we look forward to spending more time with them.

we learned a lot about the swedish easter traditions. easter is not a religious holiday in sweden. it is customary to have friday and monday off work, and most stores are closed during this time. many swedes have summer homes, and easter weekend is traditionally the first trip to them. the holiday weekend starts on thursday, when the kids dress up like witches and go door-to-door exchanging homemade cards for candy. (sounds a bit like halloween, huh?). the legend is that all of the witches went to hell on that day. the big family feast is on saturday, easter eve, not on sunday. the big feast will feature typical swedish holiday foods, and schnapps. check out the pics!

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