One thing that puzzled me during my first Lent/Easter in Sweden was when I looked around and saw witch decorations everywhere – in the florist shop displays, in both the supermarkets and department stores, on greeting cards, quite literally everywhere! They had appeared suddenly along with the other Easter paraphanelia and were so pervasive I knew they had to be something special. These were not the scary, black robed, evil looking witches, but were quite charming and sweet decorations.

One day during Lent, while I was looking through my mother-in-law's linen press for a clean tablecloth, I found an Easter themed table runner decorated with bunnies, eggs, little chicks, pretty spring flowers, and – yes, you guessed it – witches! "Why witches?" I asked Lars-Göran.

"They're Easter witches." he replied in a tone that told me they were perfectly normal. Looking at my puzzled face, he said "Why? Don't you have Easter witches in Australia?"

I told him that witches were probably the last thing I’d think of in relation to Easter. He just shrugged. "We’ve always had witches, even in Finland when I was a kid." he said. "The kids dress up as witches and they come to the house on skärtorsdagen and we give them lollies." (note: skärtorsdagen is literally translated as "Pink Thursday" and is what we in Australia would call Holy Thursday and in other countries, Maundy Thursday)

WHOA! American-style Halloween on Holy Thursday??? I had to look into this.

As is often the case, in Sweden folk, pagan and Christian traditions have converged over the centuries to produce modern day practices that are taken for granted. It seems that the Swedes of yesteryear were deeply superstitious and they believed that when Christ was in the tomb between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, evil in the form of witches, flew freely throughout the country. Until not so long ago apparently, people hid from Good Friday until Easter Sunday, not even cooking or heating their homes for fear that witches would see the smoke and be attracted to the house.




The tradition of children dressing up as Easter witches dates back to the early 1800s in both Sweden and Finland. But the actual association between Easter and witches began much earlier. In a Swedish church in Uppland, there is a painting dating from 1480 portraying three Easter witches holding out their drinking horns to be filled by the Devil with a magic potion. It was believed that on Holy Thursday, witches (häxor) flew off for a rendezvous with the Devil himself at a mythical place called Blåkullen, which some believe is the island of Blå Jungfrun just off the coastline of south-east Sweden. There they feasted and danced to the singing of magpies (skator), flying back just in time for church services on Easter Sunday morning, where they might accidentally reveal their identities by saying their prayers backwards.

Along with the whole Christian tradition was also a deep longing for spring after a long, dark, cold winter. With the literal rebirth of the earth and Christ’s resurrection co-inciding, this was seen as a time for both a blessing and a wish for increased growth and prosperity in the coming months. So you get the tradition of people decorating their homes with påskris and also growing small containers of grass where the Easter bunny hides the eggs and lollies. Yes, it’s real grass, sold in all the shops in seed packets decorated with little chicks and bunnies!




As with the Christmas Lucia, over time I just fell in love with this tradition of cute little Easter witches and I look forward to the few children who still come around on Holy Thursday, dressed up to the nines, carrying their copper kettles or baskets and bringing their little Easter letters to exchange for lollies. I keep a stash of chocolate eggs and goodies carefully hidden from Lars-Göran so I have something to give them. These witches are called päskkarring or "Easter little old lady".




I saw that many children were streaming past on their way to the park in centrum where there was a costume judging and small, low key party. There appears to be a standard "witchy" look for the kids coming around. Most of them have bright spots of rouge applied generously to each cheek and scarves tied on their heads, Babouska style. They are all wearing aprons and a have a sprinkling of drawn-on freckles. They are quite endearing and utterly charming.




The local teenagers seem to have updated the witch tradition. I saw a couple of teenage girls at the bus stop near our flat. Both were sporting a serious Goth look in black leather, with stylised black eyeshadow and lots of silver chains. Come to think of it, maybe they weren't "dressed up" for today, but just heading into town for the movies.

One of the advantages of living in the country rather than the big city is that these traditions still live on here in their simple form and while several of my Stockholm friends report that they have never seen an Easter witch at their door, I can look forward to a few small groups of costumed children coming around with their copper pots, smiling faces ready to sing a song for some Easter goodies.

And there goes the doorbell now......