Walpurgis Fires

April 30th

The celebration of Walpurgis Night, or Valborgsmässoafton in Swedish (“Valboree”) is so ancient, there are many reasons given as to why it appears on the calendar.  Some say that the tradition stems from rural communities as they would bring their animals out into the fields this time of year, and fires were lit to scare away predators.  Others claim it as an important spiritual holiday of fertility and rebirth, as it is the midpoint between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice and the eve of the pagan holiday Beltane.  Of course, the early church authorities recognized this, and canonized Saint Walpurga, who is best known for fighting back the tide of witchcraft.  If the masses cannot be purged of their pagan rituals, just give the holiday some proper Christian context.

 Regardless of its origins, it is seems rather intuitive as to why it should be celebrated here in Umeå.  Once the snow had melted, it was time to light the fires ushering in the spring!  Old doors, broken chairs, and other wooden refuse were piled up, and multiple trees were stacked atop them to a height of about ~20 feet.  A choir was assembled (Swedes love to sing) and began to sing “Spring Songs”, like “Längtan till Landet” (“Longing for a country”):

 

The winter raged among our fjällar;
drift flowers melt down and die.
The sky smiles in the spring's bright nights,
sun kisses forests and lakes.
Soon it is summer here. In purple waves,
Gold plated, shades of blue,
lie the meadows in today's flames,
and in the grove dance källorne.

Yes, I come! Greet, happy winds,
Out to the country, out to fåglerne,
That I love them, birch and linden,
lake and mountain, I want to see them again,
see them as in my childhood,
follow the creek dancing to clarified lake,
thrush singing in the pine forest groves,
Water play around the bird's bay and oh…  

  

Thanks, Google translate!  Well, there were a few untranslated words (in bold) I’ll have to ask someone about, but the overall meaning should be clear.  Spring is finally here!  We’ve never been so excited to see a lawn.  We’ve also recently seen ducks pairing together, birds making nests, a few flowers, leaves beginning to emerge, baby lambs, and tadpoles.

PONIES!

Walpurgis Revelers (some well past their bedtime)

European coltsfolt - the first wildflower we’ve seen emerge!  Also called ‘son-before-the-father’, the flower emerges before the hoof-shaped leaves.  It has traditional medicinal use as an expectorant for coughs and bronchial infections.

spring at the 63rd parallel… the long thaw

Påsk (Easter)

Willow and birch branches are decorated with feathers during the Easter holidays.

  

Sweden has the highest candy consumption in the world and so the Easter bunny in Sweden brought Amelia lots of candy!

Saturday is Lördagsgodis (Saturday candy).  It’s custom to only eat candy on Saturday.  I think lots of candy is eaten on Saturday, and maybe only a little candy on other days.

 

at the coast April 15th

 

Ostnäs Naturreservat, April 22nd

Our 20^th century tape-deck Volvo wagon drove us out for another adventure.  We were met with a snowy muddy road that was impassible.  (That’s the second time that’s happened this *spring*.)  Our 21^st century cell phone came to the rescue.  We plugged into the satellite map which showed us a little arrow of our location and gave us directions to another nature reserve further out along the coast.  The little arrow confirmed that we were taking the correct turns down muddy unmarked roads.  We reached the end of the road and could tell that water was nearby just a little beyond the trees.  We saw no signs and not even a sign of a trail at first but then spotted a path that someone else walked along pulling a sled.  The sky was filled with fog and gave a mysterious feeling to the place.  The birds were making a ruckus just up ahead.  We followed the sled path and discovered the cause for the commotion.  It appeared the sled had dumped off a LARGE pile of fish remains.  We didn’t get too close for fear that the multitude of crazy seagulls would attack us.  We continued on to walk along the sinuous rocky coastline.  As we headed for the shore we post-holed through slush.  The slush claimed one of Chris’s shoes.  (He doesn’t have proper snow boots.  He wears the same low hiking boot every day of the year.)  He pulled it out and dumped out ice water.  Apparently we were walking through a boggy area.  Amelia and I both laughed at the site but then I realized that water was indeed ice water and it might be bad for Chris’s foot and put an end to our day.  Good thing Chris is super tough in the cold (unlike me wearing snow boots and snow pants).  He continued on with frozen feet.  He did however say, “This is why all those people (that we passed on the country roads) are walking and running on the paved roads.”  He also added, “I’m going to have dry feet next weekend.”  It’s been a common theme (Chris’s wet feet) this spring since we’ve been walking instead of skiing.  I’m buying him snow boots for next year.

Chris’s feet got a break from the wet slush while we rock hopped along the coast.  The land and rocks reach out like fingers into the coast and create a curvy coast-line with inlets of calm water.  A moose disregarded the curves.  We followed tracks that came out of one inlet of water, straight through the snowy land and back into another inlet of water.  We didn’t see the moose (which is probably a good thing) but we did see a Grus grus! (Eurasian Crane: at 100–130 cm (40–52 in) long, with a 180–240 cm (71–96 in) wingspan (thanks Wikipedia!).  People walking along dry paved roads don’t get to listen to the waves of the sea or rock hop and might not see a Grus grus or check out moose tracks.  Although we do see lots of moose crossing signs along the side of the road.  Perhaps Chris’s feet would prefer road-side wildlife viewing, but we’ll see if he’s ready for another slushy adventure after spending a week in town. We are attempting to check out the nature reserves listed on the county page- there are lots of them!  I look forward to returning to them once the snow is gone to see how the landscapes change.   

green at last!

Chris got his wish.  The following two weekends his feet remained dry.  It’s a treat to see that the snow is melting away and we get to discover the GREEN plants that had been hidden away all winter long.

new plants to discover!

giant ant hill

I even got to lounge on the beach.

What we consider spring is finally here.  We’ve never been so excited to see a lawn!  We’ve also recently seen ducks pairing together, birds making nests, a few flowers, leafs beginning to emerge, baby lambs, tadpoles…

I understand why they wait until April 30th to celebrate spring rather than on Spring Equinox, March 20th.

More about Walpurgis Night (April 30th) on another blog.

Turdus pilaris and her nest outside our bedroom window.

Chris transplanting out at Turmalinen, where we are gardening.