In honor of the Halloween festivities this past weekend I thought I would do this week's cultural post on Swedish Halloween! Halloween is not a holiday that was traditionally celebrated in Sweden but since the 1990s and with the help of American influences and some marketing efforts, Swedes have begun to enjoy the holiday like us Americans do. Although Swedes do not engage in trick-or-treating like Americans do for Halloween, they do dress up and go to fancy parties or have ghost parties. Lots of bars and restaurants also stage parties for celebration as Swedes begin to adopt the holiday. Also, many farms take part in pumpkin growing competitions!
Interestingly, after talking to my Swedish friends I have learned that Easter is actually the holiday when Swedes dress up and go trick-or-treating. While Americans tend to have Easter egg hunts, eat chocolate bunnies, and hang out with a giant Easter bunny, young Swedish children dress up in traditional garb that looks like old ladies and run around the neighborhood trick-or-treating (but it's not called that). I find this case so interesting because I can see how an American tradition is being incorporated into another culture and yet this culture still holds on to their unique traditions. My boyfriend is in graduate school right now in Madrid, Spain and his friends are from all over the world and yet they all wanted to dress up in traditional "American" Halloween costumes to celebrate.
http://sweden.se/collection/celebrating-the-swedish-way-a-year-of-traditions/article/halloween/
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