National Day of Sweden

True Swedes - ABBA in front of the Swedish colors, wrapped in ... tin foil?

And so... today, June 6, we celebrate Sweden's National Day, to think back to 1523 when Gustav Vasa was elected king, after defeating the Danish armies. (Yes, that is the same guy who did the original "Vasaloppet" to flee from the Danes - see earlier post on this blog.) Sweden is still a constitutional monarchy, but Swedish nationalism has changed dramatically during the past generation. (For more on this, read "The lowdown of Sweden's National Day" in The Local.) Ethnic nationalism is still vibrant in the Swedish mentality - although not very much celebrated on an official "national" day. But is has become increasingly politically incorrect to make nationalist statements based on primordialism, something Sweden used to be pretty good at during the early 20th century... Nowadays the only accepted version of Swedish nationalism is a civic nationalism which embraces (in no particular order) welfare state norms of social and economic equality, liberal values and inclusion. Anything else is deemed ethnocentrism, or worse - racism. Such a narrow scope of a national identity says a lot about the public discourse in Sweden of today. So don't look for emotional outburst and exaggerated national pride on this day - Swedes who want to uphold corny ethno-nationalist rituals wait until the festivities of Midsummer's Eve or Walpurgis Night to celebrate their pagan traditions. One might argue that Midsummer's Eve is the real national day of Sweden...

So what did the Nilsson family do for National Day? Warren Christopher went with dad to have Italian ice-cream at the ice-cream parlor on the corner. And Mom put a little wooden flagpole with the Swedish flag on our dining table. A very "lagom" celebration.