Christmas Day and Christmas Eve

Monday and Christmas Day are two very established holidays in the common Western culture. Its history is closely linked to the growth of the church but is celebrated by a very large number of people without any closer ecclesiastical connection. For many in Sweden, these days are mainly characterized by a kind of calm after the storm, where you spend time enjoying the peace after Christmas and focusing on the present.

But what are these days about? We have taken a closer look at Christmas Day and the second day of Christmas.

Christmas day

Christmas Day is originally a Christian holiday that intends to celebrate the birth of Jesus and therefore takes place on December 25 every year. In modern times, however, Christmas Day has become a symbol of the common Christmas celebration which is characterized by fir trees, candles, ornaments and general decorations.

The traditional celebration is characterized by church mass in the evening that extends beyond midnight and marks the transition of Christmas night. That is why it is also called the Christmas night fair. For many people, Christmas Day is mainly characterized by being the day after Christmas Eve and therefore marks rather a slow end to the Christmas celebration, rather than a particularly significant holiday. This also coincides with Nordic tradition where the day before Christmas was considered the most important.

Second day of Christmas

Christmas Day is the day that occurs after Christmas Day. It is often also called the second day. It occurs the day after Christmas, and is thus the second day after Jesus' birth. In many parts of the world it is a holiday, but how it is celebrated varies greatly. In Sweden, it has typically meant a rather low-key celebration that is mainly about enjoying the peace after an often hectic Christmas. In many countries where English is spoken, the second day is called Boxing day. Boxing day is a public holiday in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, among others. In the US, it's an unofficial full day. Just as with the second day falls on December 26th.  

Ascension Day

Ascension Day is a very significant day in Christianity. It is also a public holiday in a large number of countries, but how it is actually celebrated differs in several respects. In Sweden, it has a long history that in many ways also connects with pre-Christian times.

Here is some information about the day of Christ's ascension and what characterizes it in our modern times.

Christian and at the same time pre-Christian

Ascension Day is a Christian holiday that aims to mark the day when Jesus left earthly life for heaven. It always takes place on the 40th day after Easter. As this is always a Thursday, the day has sometimes been referred to as Holy Thursday.

How it is celebrated varies greatly depending on the extent to which a country has become secularized. The more traditional celebration of the ascension of Christ includes a service and a visit to the cemetery where loved ones are.

What gives it a special position in Sweden in particular is that Ascension Day also coincides with the day when farmers release the cows on pasture. Therefore, the day is historically also known as the day of grazing release / cow release. This means that culturally it also has an anchorage in the peasant society whose history is in many ways older than the history of Christianity in Sweden.

Holiday that few actually celebrate

In many cases, Ascension Day coincides with Sweden's National Day in such a way that together they form a particularly long weekend. Therefore, Ascension Day sometimes becomes part of Sweden's longest weekend period.

Despite its status as a public holiday, it is relatively unusual in Sweden to celebrate Ascension Day. It is still mainly the Christians and believers who to some extent pay attention to the day. But the celebration has increased, and many predict that it will soon be a bigger phenomenon than it has been before.