Makes perfect sense, when you think it through. In the western Christian calendar, March 25th is “Lady Day”, the feast for celebrating the annunciation of the Virgin Mary. “Lady Day” is “Vårfrudagen”, which if you say it really fast, sounds like “Våffeldagen”, which means “Waffle Day”. So eat a waffle today!
*yawn*
Oh, hi there! Hmm, it looks like I’ve woken up from my winter hibernation just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. Well, for those of you still reading this from time to time, here’s a St. Patrick’s Day greeting from the Swedish Chef & Friends:
(via Crooked Timber)
Days like this don’t come along very often! Only about every four years, actually. How will you celebrate?
Happy Leap-Day!
Today is significant for two reasons: Super Tuesday and Fettisdag.
Fettisdag is literally equivalent to Mardi Gras, so Swedes eat semlor to symbolically use up all the fat and sugar in the kitchen before Lent.
Super Tuesday, which I assume you know about. I just came from voting on my way to work this morning, at the out-of-place Tully’s on Götgatan (see photo). I didn’t really expect to vote, since I’m registered in Washington, which has an in-person caucus process sometime next week. But then I got an email from Democrats Abroad, reminding me to go vote this week. (I must have signed up for them when I first moved here, then forgotten.) It seems the Democratic party awards some delegates to expatriates as a group.
Interjected Update: The Local reports on the expat election at Tully’s here. The article mentions all the press coverage there, and it’s true. I gave an interview for Swedish Radio, and as I was walking out, a camera crew was setting up. I’d say there were as many press as there were voters.
But since I hadn’t really expected to vote until I got that email, it’s really been a last-minute decision for me. And who did I choose, in the end?
Tomorrow I leave Stockholm for 3 weeks, stopping in four cities along the way. If you’ll be around these places at the same time as me, then let’s meet and catch up! Here’s the itinerary:
I probably won’t be posting to the travelogue during this trip, so I’ll just say a few things about “Jul” and leave you with a Jul photo: the lit tree at the KTH campus. In most of the buildings’ windows, you can see electric adventsljusstake, by far the most common kind of Jul lighting in Sweden. It’s basically a row of electric candle-shaped lights, placed on a squat A-shape with the center one highest. At first glance, you might think it’s a menorah, but at closer examination you’d see there are only seven lights. Read more…
Overcaffeinated Edition
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