Rites of Spring

Thursday was the last day of April, and here in Sweden, that's something to celebrate. I think that's because it's the day before the First of May, which is a holiday, and holidays are celebrated the night before.

This particular holiday had been completely off my radar until the previous weekend when my mother-in-law invited herself to our festivities. I'd had absolutely nothing planned, but I couldn't say no. The centerpiece of this occasion is always the bonfire. We did have a pile of twigs and stuff that we'd planned on burning, but unfortunately it had been surrounded by mountains of building debris, so the setting certainly lacked appeal. To make matters worse, my husband had a cold all week--bad enough that he stayed home from work on Wednesday. I had invited our good friends/neighbors, but they were anxious to finish their remodeling project before guests came the next day, so they didn't want to commit. Because of this, I'd hesitated about inviting a lot people over to celebrate with us. Maybe we should just forget about it.

Thursday morning dawned windy, and it remained windy all day--exactly what you don't want when planning a bonfire that's a bit too close to a bunch of building debris. We decided to cancel and go see what was happening in the local town instead. It turns out that they had a bonfire in the middle of a field where it was somewhat safe despite the wind. The local commerce club sold hot dogs, everyone sang the national anthem and a few songs about spring, and someone made a speech welcoming spring. It was low key, and we actually had a pretty good time.

The first of May is a holiday for the purpose of expressing solidarity with the Social Democrats. I've always wondered how one political party can get their own holiday. None of the other political parties have holidays. According to the newspaper, the SDs had a parade with a few people holding protest signs in the county seat. A total of about 50 people turned up. I imagine most other people were doing what they usually do on holidays: nursing a hangover after the previous evening's festivities.