Today, January 13th, is the “official” Swedish day for throwing Christmas out the door. Twenty days has passed since Christmas and the Saints’ calendar lists Knut on this day. I’ve enjoyed a couple of days in Lund, an old, cute and not-so-big city in southern Sweden with a lingering Christmas feeling. (I also spotted more bikes than cars and many pedestrian reflectors!)
When I left the US, my house was the only one on the block with any signs of Christmas at all. The last official Christmas bank holiday is January 6th, so why the 13th? It turns out that the Knut day, named after a Danish prince who was murdered January 7th, 1131 and declared saint in 1170. During the 17th century, the day was moved to the 13th in the Swedish calendar and as it was already established as the day for cleaning out Christmas, Sweden extended the holidays for a week. Nobody knows why… Please enjoy some pics of a cute town not in a rush to get rid of Christmas quite yet!
Here is a link if you’d like to know more about the differences between Swedish and American Christmas traditions – written by an American expat.
Elisabeth
