Happy Easter (glad påsk)! We embraced Swedish traditions this year as well as cooking a British roast dinner. Being born in a different country is an advantage when it acts as an excuse to double up on celebrations.
Boxed eggs aren’t popular in Sweden and in fact, I haven’t seen them for sale anywhere. The Swedes prefer to fill cardboard eggs with their favourite pick n mix instead. It’s a nice idea because you can choose anything you like — we stocked up on mini Lindt eggs (a family tradition), Moomin gummies, fruit jellies, påskskum and chocolate covered almonds.
We had a socially distanced Easter celebration in our friends’ garden. First item on the agenda… an Easter egg hunt. I haven’t done one in years! The UK uses “hot” or “cold” to determine how close someone is to a hidden object. In Sweden, people use “fisk”, “mellan” or “fågel” — fish, middle or bird (meaning down low like a fish or higher up like a bird).
The ground and trees are still bare but if you look closely, you’ll find blåsippa poking their heads out of the soil. Family and friends in the UK send Spring photos and it’s amazing how much further ahead everything is there!
Removing the Winter cover from the outdoor table was the first thing we did after the Easter egg hunt; a nice reminder of all the meals we enjoyed around it last Summer. I love the mosaic tiles underneath! It was warm enough to sit in a t-shirt for a while but the wind was a reminder that Winter still has one foot in April.
Asparagus, eggs and potatoes were cooking in the kitchen.
Gravlax is salmon cured with salt, sugar, and dill. A sweet mustard sauce called gravlaxsås is served with it. Delicious!
Colouring inside the lines on a curved object was tricky after drinking wine!
Påskris is another Swedish Easter tradition. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with rice but actually refers to feathers tied to the ends of twigs — usually bunches of birch in pots or tree branches in gardens. They symbolise the growth of Spring and are used to add colour until nature wakes up again.
Blazing sun and blue skies really made the day feel like a celebration of Spring. Easter is a largely secular holiday in Sweden so I think most others also see it this way rather than a religious event. I’m glad we made the most of the sun yesterday because we woke up to snow this morning… this bouncing between warm and cold is known as April bakslag (April backlash).
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