This Thursday was the last day of April, which in Sweden means that most people gets outside to celebrate the spring. The day is called Valborg, and in all towns bonfires are lit. Some say we simply celebrate the spring, but the custom comes from Germany some 1200 years ago. By then Sweden was all but Christian, so Valborg may very well have been influenced a bit by Asa traditions. Anyway, it is said that on this day, all witches goes to Blåkulla, where the Devil lives, to have a great time. The bonfires are for scaring them off.
Here in Lund this day is celebrated big time among students and young people in general, and all pilgrimage to a park in the central town. The park is not big and it’s amazing seeing how many people that actually can get in there. The thing is that it is totally non-organised. If it would have been that, there would probably have been restrictions such how many that can get in and so on. It would be so boring that no one would came anyway. Lots of older people like myself complain and think all these people pollutes and destroys the park and it’s surroundings. But to be honest, it is not worse than it recovers in a week or two. My opinion, that is.
I went there during lunch time to get a few shots on the spectacle, and also later in the evening to have a few more shots. It’s not every day you get a chance to see events like this. In a month or so, all students are gone and Lund has fallen into sleep again.
There are not many square inches of free space here
Since there are no entertainment,
you have to come up with your own
Besides the non-organized megaparty,
there is also this amusement park that’s everything but amusing
The bonfire has not been lit yet,
but most young people have left the area anyway.
Not that interesting, obviously
But to me it certainly warms well in the cold evening
I’m definitely too old for that, but some twenty-five years ago, I would have enjoyed this a lot. Now, this felt like a very long day to me. One lunch hour and three hours during the evening, obviously nothing compared to all these people, spending the entire day out there. Considerable amounts of beverage help, of course. But I definitely felt better than they the day after, though. I’m quite happy with being older, having done all that and moved on in life.
4 Comments
These are very interesting. I’ve never been to Sweden, and your post sent to do some research about Lund. The climate is much more moderate than I would have thought. What do you do there?
I will try to make posts on Lund from time to time, and this special occasion definitely called for a post.
The climate here in south Sweden is much more moderate in for instance north Sweden, where they still have minus degrees and lots of snow. Here in the south we usually have temperatures over 0 degrees Celsius during the winter.
I’m a technical writer, doing copywriting and illustrations for marketing material and such.
Maybe next year you can take a digital camera and a Polaroid Pogo and make a few bucks off of the college students!
I’m with you! I’m not much for large crowds and such. It would have been pretty tiring, to say the least.
Not a bad idea, not bad at all. I was actually thinking of this today, if it would be possible to set-up a web page and sell such images afterwards, but possibly they are most keen to pay when drunk.