Day 237: Preparing for Påsk

Some aspects of Swedish Easter (påsk) are not too strange, eggs are eaten, chickens are abundant and everybody is high on chocolate and sweets.

I do miss English chocolate eggs, which are annually available special editions of your favourite chocolate bars, and the advent of the creme egg (chocolate egg filled with sugar goo that looks like a real egg). However I am placated by the Swedish offering of filling a paper egg with whatever happens to be the recipient's favourite.

Paper eggs come in a variety of styles, from classy designs or metal tins to generic, half squashed boxes with a rabbit on or chickens so poorly drawn that they look sinister.

Anyway, as I said, some aspects of Swedish Easter are not weird. But then there's björkris (birch twigs). People stick bouquets of sticks outside their houses, businesses and shops as Easter approaches. They attach feathers of assorted colours to the tops. It doesn't look particularly nice. It doesn't look particularly springlike. It doesn't look like chickens, or eggs or anything to do with Jesus. Its supposed to be a bit like a christmas tree in that you decorate it and can hang eggs from it, but....I don't know. It's not as full and luscious as a tree somehow...

At any rate, we have one in our house and we decorated it with feathers, accompanied with the following conversation:

"Why do Swedish people do this?"
"I don't really know"
"I think it's a weird tradition"
"It is a weird tradition"
"Lets put it in the window where people can see."