Good Friday and Easter Monday

In Christian tradition, Good Friday and the second day of Easter are two very important festivals that are both essential in the attention of Jesus. But even in the secularized world, these days in many places have the status of an official full day.

Despite the fact that they are holidays, the celebrations in many countries have more or less not taken place. What is unique is that the weekends in some places are barely noticed, while in other places they involve very large events.

Here is a little more information about what Easter Monday and Good Friday are really about.

Good Friday

Good Friday is basically a Christian holiday that takes place in memory of Jesus' crucifixion. It takes place on the Friday before Easter, and has as its original idea to focus on the suffering that Jesus went through in connection with the crucifixion. In Sweden, it took until the 17th century before it became a holiday.

Good Friday's date varies greatly from year to year, and that is why it is said to occur on the very Friday before Easter. In many countries, Good Friday is celebrated with a symbolic crucifixion. In connection with this, there is also a longer period of fasting.

For Sweden, on the whole, Good Friday has been a low-key holiday that is not really celebrated beyond church circles. Internationally, however, it has been considerably more tangible.

Easter Monday

Easter Monday is also a public holiday in many countries. It is celebrated on the first Monday after Easter. In the USA, on the other hand, Easter Day has a special position as it is not a state-wide holiday. Therefore, the celebration differs greatly in different places.

The second day of Easter is originally a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Therefore, the celebration has a historical anchorage in the service. It would probably not be too unfair to say that the second day of Easter is mainly noticed by the people who regularly visit the church.

Sweden's National Day

Despite its very special position, Sweden's national day has not actually been a holiday for very long. But at the same time, it has its ancestry that stretches back several hundred years in time. How it is celebrated, on the other hand, varies greatly between different places in Sweden, and in a way its existence is still controversial.

We have taken a deep dive in Sweden's national day.

Old Sweden but modern tradition

Internationally, Sweden is one of the countries that has been united the longest. It is actually one of the oldest kingdoms in the world. But despite this, Sweden's national day is a fairly new phenomenon. It was not until the end of the 19th century that it was decided to celebrate Sweden as a united kingdom.

Today's history is interestingly closely linked to Skansen. The idea with Skansen has always been to represent a kind of living miniature of Sweden, which means that from the very beginning there was an idea to focus on Sweden as a nation state.

When it was decided in 1893 to celebrate Sweden, it was decided to give feedback to June 6, 1523 when Gusta Vasa became king and also a symbol of a united Sweden.

A fairly new holiday

Although the celebration of Sweden's national day now extends more than a hundred years back in time, it was not until 2005 that it became a public holiday. It makes the day an exciting and both new and old phenomenon.

The celebration varies greatly between different places in Sweden. But as flag day, it is a given to hoist the Swedish flag. Unlike other holidays, there is really no real template for how the national day should be celebrated. Skansen in particular continues to be a common denominator and this is also where a large part of the celebration actually takes place. Whether the day will gain greater broad popular support, however, remains unclear.