Rödluvan had to change her hood in yellow for this page, he, he :-)
Rödluvan and:

 Small soft chicks. Picture taken 2003.
In Sweden Easter is most celebrated as a holiday. People get some days free of work. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrating in the church. You can go to church or watch the service on TV. In my home country Holland the resurrection was celebrating very much.

But Easter was also the coming of the spring that's why we have chickens and egg. In the North of Sweden we don’t celebrate spring at Easter, even though we have egg and chickens. 

The reason: THERE IS NO SPRING at Easter yet!  We only can make spring indoors with flowers and chicks.

2003. Begonia
  
Our own painted Easter egg and our
Easter flowers, Daffodils.
There can still be much snow in the north of Sweden at Easter.
In Sweden and in Holland the children
are painting egg. When my son, was a little boy we always were painting eggs. On the picture,
Lennart, 10 years old, is painting egg
We put the painted eggs in a basket

We are eating chicken and a lot of eggs at Easter.

 

This time of the year there is still snow in the north of Sweden. Most in the mountains. At the coast the snow can be almost gone. But this id different from year to year. Many people are going to the winter sport in the mountains at Easter.

But most people stays at home and relax, take a skiing tour in the woods or take a walk. Or are visiting friends and relatives.

The children have a week Easter holiday. We have free from work at Good Friday until Easter Monday. We begin to work again on Tuesday.

  2003. A little chicken that keep the egg warm. My mother knitted it for me.
Easter 2008. Still snow on the ground.
2007. We have flowers most in yellow. The Daffodil is the most common Easter flower. We have them real or artificial.
Yellow tulips.
2008. Miniature daffodils
2008. Miniature daffodils.
2007. A close-up picture of a miniature daffodil.
2007. We decorate twigs with coloured feathers. You can put the twigs in water and then they will bloom with small leaves. But there are people who are allergic and can’t stand this. That’s why people often has the twigs in a vase without water. And decorate them with a lot of feathers. I always use yellow and purple feathers.
2007.  That year the snow had disappeared. Eater was later.

It's not common in Sweden with Easter trees outside. But in our town they have an Easter tree with feathers on the market place.

You can also hang painted egg in the twigs, or small chickens.
2007. My neighbour made these painted egg for me. You can hang it in the twigs as on the picture above.
2007. We eat a lot of Easter candies.

In Holland the Easter hare (Is a kind of Easter bunny) comes with candies or big chocolate egg in a basket. In Holland we children could hide egg in the garden an let people seek them. This is not common in Sweden. In Sweden you have small candy eggs or chocolate eggs with cream in it. But the eggs with cream are mostly coming from Germany. In Holland and Germany there are a lot of candy eggs.

2003. In Holland they have big eggs make of chocolate. Sometimes filled with cream. In Sweden this is not common. We have the small candies in a big egg made of cardboard. There are pictures of chickens , roosters or bunnies on the cardboard eggs.
2004. I got this egg of a neighbour.
2007 The candies inside the egg.
2008. Small chicks that are made of Marsh mallows. At the left a Santa made of Marsh mallows. We use to have these at Christmas, but I still had a little bag of these that I had not opened. Påsk kycklingar means Easter chicks.
We use to eat fried chicken (made in the oven) at Easter.

This year (2008) I made a dish with chicken fillet. It includes small tomatoes, onion, spring onion (or leek), mushrooms, rosemary cream, mustard and white wine.

On Good Friday we use to eat fish. In 2007 I made fish coated with egg and gluten free bread crumbs. And had boiled potatoes and spinach to it. Easter 2008 i will make baked salmon wint mustard and cheese in the oven.
Good Friday 2008 I made baked salmon in the oven. With boiled potatoes, white fish sauce and small peas. In the pan at the left there is boiled cauliflower. You buy this salmon in fillet bits. No fishbone in it.
Easter 2007 and 2008. I made this quiche with egg, cheese, onion and leek.
At Easter Monday 2007. I had reindeer meat with onion and bacon and white sauce to dinner.
At Easter 2008 I will make a pot with reindeer meat. This picture is taken 2006.
2007. I'm always dressed in yellow at Easter.
2003. We decorate the houses in Sweden with small chicks, hens, eggs,  roosters and Easter hare (bunnies). These hare (bunnies) on the picture are from Holland. My mother send them for many years ago. There have been candies in the bunnies.
2007. We do not decorate with ducklings at Easter. But I got this duckling from a friend in the USA. And I got the white bunny of another fiend in the USA.
2008. All these Easter animals came to me from the USA. Different friends sent them to me. It looks real cute :)
2008. It's common with decoration hens, chicks and roosters. At the left a rooster made of pasteboard. At the right a rooster made of pottery. You can have candies in it.
2007. Easter magnets on the fridge and a bus from London :)

2003. Rooster hen and a chick made of ceramics.

2008. From Left to right. Candle light chick, ceramic hen, candy egg, a rooster with overalls and a plastic chick.
2007. This chick lost a foot.
2007. But it could stand on the spice-rack.
2008. This is the eldest chick I have. I got it from my mother when I was a child.
2008. These soft chicks are rather tiny. The big chick on the left can say "peep".
2008. This looks very funny. There is a chick on the back of every tiger and on the lion. :-) The plastic tigers and lion are made in Germany. (Schielch). In the background you can see a blurry wolf and a fox, also from Schielch
2008. The Tiger from Pooh and the Spanish fox Zorro with Easter chicks.
2008. I also have artificial Easter flowers. This flower pot chick is real cute. I got the little chick in the egg from my mother for many years ago.
2008. I bought new miniature daffodils. I bought Easter napkins with a chick.
2008. I bought this little present to Ove.
2008. The present contained a little box of chocolate.

2003. We have Easter witches in Sweden. Small children use to dress up as witches and ring the bell and ask for candies. They have an empty coffee pot, and you put the candies in it. The small children dressed as a witch, are not scary, they have cute clothes an looks like kind old ladies in old fashion clothes. Even the small boys are dressed up to follow the Easter witches for getting candies.  Now all children in Sweden are ringing the bell for candies. It's most in schools and day care houses there children go dressed up as witches. And they get  candies from their parents.

The witches has nothing to do with the Christian Easter. It is only a tradition for children. And is has NOTHING to do with Halloween. The Easter witches are never scary. They only are dressed cute as nice old ladies. They wear a  kerchief (headscarf) a dress and an apron. The boys also may be witches. Then they have a hat and trousers. But the boys are NOT magicians. They only look like kind old men.

2008. The seven years old girl of my neighbour came dressed as an Easter  witch. She made this beautiful card for me. I got this egg with candies from the girl and her mother. I gave the girl a lot of candies.

Full moon over our yard. Picture taken 2002

The reason we have witches is this. Many years ago people in Sweden thought that the witches made a witches’ ride to the Blå Kullen to meet the devil. They were flying on a broom at night before Holy Thursday. Then  often the full moon was shining. They had a black cat and a coffee pot. And they were eating snakes and toads. l. The night before Easter they went home again.

The people in the old times were afraid of the witches. On the night before Holy Thursday they locked the doors and the barn and did not have brooms or other equipment standing outside. People were hiding all kind of equipment the witch could fly on, like a rake or a broom. And they locked the damper of the open fire. And they draw a cross on the door. And they lit fires outside and put crackers in the fire to scare the witches. Nowadays there are still Easter crackers. But this is only common in the south of Sweden.

2008-03-20. The full moon was shining. This was so peaceful.
Jesus said: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John. 8:12
Picture taken 2006. The reason for Easter is the crucifixion of Jesus. People can go to the church. We have the Lutheran religion in Sweden. And not so much people are Catholic. In Holland there are more Catholic people. I am raised with the Lutheran religion. But I sometimes went to a Catholic church. On the picture you can see the interior of a modern Catholic church that I visited in Holland.
Picture taken in summer.  This is one of the churches in the town I live. An old church, but it is renovated several times. This is a Lutheran church.
Interior of our church.

In the old times you should not do things on Good Friday. And you never could go out to the movies or dance. When I was young, my mother did forbid me to play pop music on Good Friday. I thought it was terrible. Now, when  I have been older I use to think about the crucifixion of Jesus. And I am meditating and praying that day.

Interior in our church.

Nowadays it is not so strict anymore. I don’t like the strict things. But I like to hear about Jesus and to think about the things He did. It was wonderful to go to church in Holland. We had a special church for young people and I always went to that service.

2006. Mary with the child Jesus in a modern Catholic church in Holland. I like this sculpture. It is filled of love and happiness.
Candles in a Catholic church in Holland. This looks so peaceful.
Summer 2007. Sankt Nikolai Church  in Stockholm. (Often called "Storkyrkan" = "The Great Church" in Sweden) in Stockholm. I prayed to God there and my prayers were heard.
Summer 2007. Candles in Sankt Nikolai Church , Stockholm. You don't need to pray or think of Jesus only at Easter. You can do this every time of the year.
2008. Easter in my neighbours house.
2008. Easter in my neighbours house. Easter basket that my neighbour decorated. The grass is real. You can buy seed and grow it in a flowerpot.
2008. Easter in my neighbours house. Another Easter decoration with grass.
2008. Easter in my neighbours house. Painted egg in a basket.
2008. Easter in my neighbours house.
2008. Easter in my neighbours house. A wonderful flower.
We also send Easter cards but nowadays not so many people do this. Often people has no time to do it. On the Easter cards you can see spring flowers. Daffodil, tulips and crocus. There are also small chickens, hens and roosters on the Easter Cards.

I love these two cards. They remind me about spring.

2008. Everything is coloured on the cards. But outside it still is black and white. No spring at Easter here. I took this picture of the woods from the window of my office at work.
The Easter cards are so brightly coloured.
Rooster and chick
A cute card with the chicks and the egg cups.

The card with the Easter witch is funny. The hens and rooster were scared when she came flying on the broom. :)

Daffodils and grape hyacinths are common on our Easter cards.
This is an Easter card that I made myself. I took this picture of the daffodil in June! Glad Påsk means Happy Easter.
2008. In Sweden we eat a lot of egg. The stores are selling all kind of egg cups. This year the store Åhlens had egg cups with small animals like elephants, camels, mice etc. Then I saw one with a crocodile. I was laughing so much and bought it. Because I am a member in a mail list about crocodiles.

I will show this picture for the crocodile list members. An Easter crocodile instead of Easter chicks. Just look at those teeth!  LOL. :-D

2009. We decorate with hens and chicks. But I think i'ts fun to show these small plastic ducks on the Easter page. The big plastic ducks are bought in Sweden. The small plastic ducks and the stuffed ducks come from the USA.
2009-04-09. I bought the Easter egg with candies and the German Easter bunnies made of chocolate to a neighbour. Here they still were in my office before I went home.
2009-04-10. Good Friday at six in the morning. The blue hour. It's winter again!
2009-04-10. It was snowing heavy.
2009-04-10. It looks more like Christmas !
2009-04-10. No spring here at Easter.
2009-04-10. But I had miniature daffodils inside. Such a comfort they gave.
2009-04-10. Crocus and miniature daffodils.
2007. Yellow sheets on the bed at Easter.

Oops! There is a tiger on the bed and the little duck  from the USA is on the bed too. But the tiger will not eat the duck. They are friends :)

Happy Easter!

 
Wilhelmina Schedin 2016-03-10