The first candle lit today, is called the Candle of the Prophet. It reminds us of the prophecies foretelling the coming of Christ.

It’s gorgeous here at the moment. Swedish decorations are simply lovely. I have the traditional Swedish lights in the windows, brass stars (also lit), fragrant gelcandles, advent candles, tea-light candles in little Christmas houses, pine wreaths, my Julstjärnor (otherwise known as poinsetta) and even a Julbok (a straw Christmas goat – don’t ask!). I turned on the Advent stars in the windows and lit the first candle on our Advent candle holder.

Today is the first day of Advent. The streets in town are decked out with twinkling lights, the shop windows and homes are beautifully decorated with Christmas trees and flowers for Christmas viewing (Skyltsöndag, which translates as “Shop Window Sunday�). Very subtle, simple but effective Christmas displays. Nothing tacky here! All of the town lights came on when it was dark (3pm!!!)– very tasteful white lights, with uniform half circle sprays of lights on each shop, trees with twinkling fairy lights and most people with their lights in the windows. And to complete the picture, it snowed at around 10am. Just a gentle, powdery snowfall that blanketed the town and made it perfect! It looked like a picture post-card. It made me misty-eyed. We went out in the snow and checked out the first Christmas displays and admired the pretty fairy land sight. I’ll put off the tree until closer to Christmas, but I am still looking which makes Lars-Göran roll his eyes even more.

For the Swedes, Christmas provides a welcome period of warmth and festivity in the middle of winter. It is also the beginning of the ‘glögg’ party season, where guests are served traditional Swedish ‘glögg’, a hot spicy wine with raisins and almonds. But I’ll deal with food and drink another day.

Okay, now the decorations every Swedish home must have:

Hanging Stars

These are made of wood or brass and have a small lightbulb inside. They hang inside from the top of the windowframe.

Advent Candles

Ours is a terracotta holder. But they can also be made of wood or metal. They are decorated with moss and lingon berries. The only common feature they have is that there are four candles – one for each week of Advent. So week 1 we have the one candle alight. Week 2, two candles and so on.


Adventsljusstake
Every home, office, shop window has at least one (and possibly more) of these lights. In Sweden it became popular to decorate a small Christmas tree in a pot with seven candles. The candles represented not only the four Sundays of Advent, but also the three Sundays leading up to Knut's Mass Day, January 13th. Today these Advent candlesticks are electric and all candles remain lit from the first Sunday of Advent We have one in each window.



Julskomme
A julskomme is basically a small, braided, plaited or bent straw figure formed into a variety of shapes. The most common shapes are simple human and animal forms.


Julbok
The straw julbock is a popular julskomme figure that Swedes like to place under their Christmas trees. It's believed that these small figures were once made from the last shafts of the harvest crop and symbolised the power of rejuvenation and fertility. The julbock, or Christmas ram, preceded St. Nicholas as a Christmas figure in Sweden.


Julkärve
These sheaves of oats tied with a cheery red ribbon appear in shops and at Christmas markets in December. The sheaves are placed outdoors in a place that is accessible for birds (usually in tall branches difficult for cats to access).

Tying kärve is another tradition that precedes Christianity. Way back then, Swedish farmers presented the kärve to birds as a symbolic gift: sort of a plea to the birds to eat the kärve, and not the crops!


Julkrans
The doorway is decorated with a wreath made from fresh fir sprigs. The fragrance is beautiful! These can be home-made or purchased from the Christmas markets. I’ll cheat and buy mine next week at the markets. Some people also have straw ones.


And.... CANDLES!


We have red poinsettias and hyacinths as Advent and Christmas flowers. And what about a tree? Well, “We in Sweden� don’t put up the tree until the last week of Advent. So you need to keep watching this space.

To close, I leave you with my Zen thought for the day:

I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are: eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That is my idea of a perfect day.

Till next time!