Hello, friends! Victoria and I arrived in Copenhagen last Friday, April 28. Typically, our post-arrival plans would have had us taking it easy for the first couple of days as we adjusted to the new time zone. Our schedule would have included going for a nice walk through a park and/or along the water, checking out a couple of bookstores, sitting in a coffee shop with our journals, and likely taking a restorative nap or two…

Last weekend, we opted for a different strategy entirely by launching into a whirlwind of activity in southern Sweden. We powered through our jet lag by soaking up the crisp spring sunshine, catching up with family, playing Finnish lawn games, practicing our Swedish with new friends, drinking early morning wine in a park along with tens of thousands of other people, and checking out a community bonfire. Is it better to cater tenderly to the needs of your body, or to ambush it? Who’s to say which is the more successful strategy? Is the grading based on how much fun you had, or how much recovery time you needed? (We had and needed a LOT of both).

Welcome to Copenhagen: First Stop, Sweden.

So why did we go to Sweden for the first weekend following our arrival in Copenhagen? My cousin, J, and her partner, D, live in Lund—a southern Swedish city that is just a short train ride across the Øresund—and they kindly invited us to join them for their planned weekend activities! We didn’t realize it when we booked our flights, but our arrival coincided with the Swedish celebration of Valborg, which is especially popular in their community.

Valborg: It’s Spring, Let’s Party!

What is Valborg? In Swedish, it’s pronounced “Val-bore-ee” without the hard English “g.” But the English pronunciation (rhymes with “cyborg”) is not uncommon.

I’ll get deep into the history of Valborg another time, as the reason it takes me a long time to publish posts is that I get bogged down by having too much historical detail to effectively cover. My aim with these “travel journal” posts is to focus on writing about the actual experiences we have while traveling. Hopefully, it will help me start publishing more regularly.

Anyway! What I will say about Valborg is that, in short, it is:

1. A celebration of the long-awaited arrival of spring.
2. A great excuse to get together and party outside—especially for students wrapping up the end of their school semester.

Some brief historical context is that, in rural Sweden, May 1 was typically the day that most farmers put their livestock out to pasture. It is said that the custom of lighting a bonfire on April 30, the night before, is related to this. That farmers lit a fire and made a lot of noise—through playing music, singing, and dancing—in order to scare away bears, wolves, and other predators from the countryside. It could be said that modern Valborg parties and bonfires are thus part of a long tradition of agrarian responsibility. So party on, you raucous youngsters, your ancestors would approve!

Other facts about this celebration include that Valborg gets its name from an 8th century English saint, Walpurgia (Valborg in Swedish), who conducted missionary work in a region that is now part of present-day Germany; her feast day (in Sweden) is May 1. There are also some long-forgotten superstitions involving witches, as well as an archaic local tradition in which groups of young people went farm-to-farm and played music in exchange for food and alcohol. Trick-or-treating for party supplies! But, again, I’ll talk about this another time.

Sat., April 29: Birthdays and BBQs

Victoria and I caught a train out of Copenhagen early on Saturday morning. We met up with J and D at their place, then headed out to our first event. This was a dual birthday party being held in a Malmö city park.

The weather was unexpectedly—but enjoyably—hot and sunny! It was the first day of the year that I was able to sit outside without wearing a jacket or a sweater. Not coincidentally, it was also the first time in 2023 that I (mildly) sunburned my hair part. More of that to come, I’m sure. It’s a good reminder that I should always bring sunscreen and wear my baseball cap when participating in outdoor activities, even though the latter is a dead give-away that I’m a tourist—as if my two cameras (three if you include my cell phone) weren’t already a clear indication of that!

We rounded out the evening with a BBQ at J and D’s friend’s house, where I got to share some of the weird, archaic knowledge about Valborg that I’m sure hasn’t been relevant in Sweden for hundreds of years—if it even was in the first place. For example, on Valborg, it’s possible you may come across a witch either sitting in or standing over a creek with an empty butter churn. If she is banging the churn with a wooden spoon and crying, “milk in my pot! milk in my pot!”, then she is trying to steal all the milk your cow will produce this season. To prevent this, load your rifle up with salt and shoot her in the butt, while shouting “shit in your churn!”

It’s likely I made a lasting impression.

Sun., April 30: Valborg in Stadsparken

J, D, Victoria, and I were up early on Sunday, April 30 to get ready for the big Valborg event in Lund. We met up with three of J and D’s friends and headed to a downtown park, Stadsparken, loaded up with lawn chairs, blankets, picnic supplies, and refreshments. We arrived at 8:30 am thinking that we would be among the first to set up. However, it was soon clear to us that thousands of others had already been there for hours. The presence of sleeping bags indicated that some had even spent the night there in order to secure their prime Valborg party location!

It’s estimated that some 20,000 people—mostly students—descend upon Lund’s Stadsparken for this Valborg event. They hang out there until about 2:00 or 3:00 pm. At that point, officials clear everyone out so they can clean up and prep for the evening bonfire, a more family-friendly activity. Upon leaving the park, the large Valborg crowd disperses. The celebration continues for the rest of the day and into the night, but for the most part this is no longer done en masse unless you return to Stadsparken in the evening for the city bonfire. Other options for the rest of the day include taking naps, hosting or attending private parties, either going to a smaller neighbourhood bonfire or attending the one in Stadsparken, and even clubbing. Other communities around Sweden also have their own Valborg celebrations, but I think that Lund is the largest. This is likely because the weather in this southernmost point of Sweden is actually warm enough to be (mostly) comfortable outside, whereas other parts of the country still have snow!

Although Victoria and I were older than most of the Valborg crowd, we still had a good time. It was definitely a local experience that we would have otherwise missed out on if it wasn’t for the invitation from my cousin. There was no shortage of entertainment, and lots of great people-watching. A stage had been set up with a DJ, but our late 8:30 am arrival (!) meant that we were in an area too far away to hear it. No matter, lots of people brought their own portable speakers. J & D did as well. We dedicated a rendition of “Teenage Dirtbag” to my brother, as it is his favourite song. Another memorable moment was listening to Blink 182’s “What’s My Age Again?”

At one point, we walked by a group of young people singing from a set of songbooks that they had in hand, as if they were a choir. (Perhaps a remnant of that old trick-or-treat singing tradition for party supplies?) I also spotted a distant handful of youngsters swinging their arms and hips in a manner that was unmistakeable. In that moment, a mystery presented itself to me. There is no way these children were alive when the Macarena first burned up the dance floor in 1996! I thought Generation Z had been spared that craze!? So how was I seeing it now, all these years later, being enacted by people who would have had to purposefully seek it out as opposed to being inundated with it at every late ’90s school dance and wedding reception they attended? Are they dancing the Macarena as a means of ridicule? Or are they actually enjoying it? Is the Macarena cool again?

Valborg morning was sunny, but the wind had a definite chill to it. Every time the sun went behind the clouds we felt the temperature drop by several significant degrees. I had dressed as if the weather would be the same as it was on Saturday, even though we were in the park hours earlier on Sunday morning than we had been Saturday afternoon. I had brought sunscreen (an improvement), but I had imprudently left my jacket behind at the apartment, thinking my sweatshirt would be enough! First rule of travel: LAYERS. Second rule: REMEMBER YOU’RE IN SWEDEN. I was definitely regretting the last decision I made before we left our Canadian home in which I thought to myself, “should I bring a scarf? No, it’s going to be spring and summer! It’s going to be warm! There’s no need to bring this long, thick, beautiful yellow scarf that I could wrap around my neck multiple times and thus bestow upon myself layers of necessary heat retention. It will take up too much room in my luggage.” You beautiful fool, you just wear the scarf and boom, no extra space taken up at all! Third rule of travel: Always pack a scarf! It will always be one of the most useful things you could bring.

Anyway! Victoria and I left the park around 1:30 pm, feeling sufficiently chilled and wind-blown. This was a decision that was certainly prompted by wisdom, not age or jet lag. Okay, definitely some jet lag. We did require a restorative nap while the youths continued on with their agrarian duty in our absence.

Sun., April 30: BBQ in a Swedish Allotment Garden

We all regrouped around 4:30 pm for a BBQ hosted by one of J and D’s friends, M. M had told us earlier that he had recently acquired an allotment garden plot located really close to his apartment. Now, if you’re like me, you might be envisioning a community garden where someone is lucky if they get a patch of soil big enough for one or two vegetable beds. No, the Swedish allotment gardens are quite more expansive than that! M’s garden plot includes a small wooden cottage with a deck, a mini-greenhouse, a couple of trees, and enough land to have a lawn, a couple of landscaped pathways, and several flower and vegetable beds! In effect, it’s like having a yard! M told us that these allotment gardens are very Swedish in nature. They began to appear in Swedish cities as early as the late 1800s. The idea behind them was to provide places where the urban working class could grow their own food and have a place of refuge from city life. It’s a great idea that continues to be very timely. It is next to impossible to afford a semi-detached house with a yard in many cities. I’m sure a lot of people would love to have access to this kind of (private!) space!

I took a short walk to check out some of the other nearby allotment gardens.

After dinner we played another round of Mölkky. I surprised everyone (including myself) when, after failing to hit anything two turns in a row, I hit the “12” block and won the game. A dopamine hit like that can’t be replicated.

Sun., April 30: Bonfire Time!

We concluded Valborg weekend with the best activity of all, a local neighbourhood bonfire! We decided to go to this one instead of the big one in Stadsparken because it would be way less crowded.

Below is the photo that made me laugh so hard I cried. “Was I in that photo?” D asked. I didn’t think so. But then we zoomed in.

Onto the bonfire! Below, it’s just starting to pick up:

It’s really getting underway now:

Up close and personal:

The kids in the pictures below were super cute, waiting patiently to toast their marshmallows. A second, smaller fire was later set up nearby so that it would be safer for them. An older boy did try to get really close, until a guard discouraged him. They didn’t want anybody to get hurt, after all.

The fire from a distance:

Oh, look, it’s Victoria!

And that’s it for Valborg! For now, anyway. Thank you for reading!