Trettondag Jul - Epiphany in Sweden

The Epiphany, the feast of the Three Holy Kings, known in Swedish as Trettondedag Jul (Thirteenth day of Christmas, just as the day after Christmas Day is Annandag Jul, Second day of Christmas) is the most controversial of our Christian Public holidays. The "Almega" employers union disapproves of the religious theme of the holiday - nothing to do with having to give employees a day off of course!

Public holidays in Sweden are called Röda Dagar (Red Days, just like "red letter days") because the important Church feasts were marked in red in Church calendars. There are 13 Red Days. They are Nyårsdagen (New Year's Day), Trettondedag Jul (Epiphany), Langfredagen (Good Friday), Påskdagen (Easter Monday) Forsta Maj (1st May), Kristi Himmelsfardsdag (Ascension Day), Pingst (Pentecost Sunday) - Annandag Pingst (Pentecost Monday) was a Red Day but was replaced by - Sveriges Nationaldag (Swedish National Day, 6th June), Midsommardagen (Midsummer Day on the Saturday between 20th and 26th June), Alla Helgons Dag (All Saints/Souls Day on the Saturday between 31st October and 6th November), Juldagen (Christmas Day) and Annandag Jul (26th December).

Everyone in Sweden also celebrates a few other days like Julafton (Christmas Eve), Midsommarafton (Midsummer Eve) and Nyårsafton (New Years Eve) as full holidays and Trettondagsafton (Epiphany Eve), Skärtorsdagen (Easter Thursday), Påskafton (Easter Saturday), Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis Eve), Kristi Himmelsfärdsdag (Ascension Eve), and Allhelgonaafton (All Saints/Souls Eve) as half holidays. Also, if the Red Day falls on a Tuesday or Thursday we take the Klämdag (squeeze day between the Red Day and the weekend) as a holiday too!

Only 1st May, the Swedish National Day and Midsummer are not Christian Days, unless you include the feast day of St. Joseph the Workman and the election of King Gustavs I Vasa, who founded the Reformation in Sweden, and the feast day of St. John the Baptist as Christian Days!

Back to the Epiphany or Thirteenth Day of Christmas. It was celebrated in Sweden during the Middle Ages with Mystery Plays. It used to be the day that stjärngossar (Star Boys) dressed in white with cone hats with stars on would put on pageants of the journey of the Three Kings to Bethlehem and they would make a procession from house to house. Balthazar carried a star lantern on a pole and Caspar and Melchior would carry swords. The other children dressed as biblical characters. All would go singing songs and hymns and collecting gifts. The most famous of these biblical characters was always Judas in a big beard. The one dressed as Judas would jingle a bag with the 30 pieces of silver he received for betraying Jesus.

In Sweden today children dress as stjärngossar on Luciadag (St. Lucy's Day) instead but in a few places in Norway they can still be seen on Epiphany.

Christ Heaven Flight-Day

Ascension Thursday is known in Sweden as Kristi Himmelsfärdsdag, which translates to Christ Heaven Flight-Day. Here, just like everywhere else, it is celebrated to commemorate Jesus' ascension into Heaven, body and soul, forty days after his resurrection. Unlike everywhere else, though, we haven't moved the celebrations to the weekend.

Celebrated 39 days after Easter, always on a Thursdsay, Kristi Himmelsfärdsdag is always celebrated between April 30th and June 3rd, which means it sometimes falls on a couple of secular feasts celebrated in Sweden during this time; Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis eve, April 30th) and May 1st (International Labour Day or, indeed, the Feast Day of St. Joseph the Worker).

It is celebrated as a national holiday even if it has lost many of the traditions attached to it. It used to be the day when cows were allowed out to grass for the first time of the year and since 1924 it is an important day for the sobriety movement. It is also the first day for fishing - första metaredagen - it used to be widely believed that fish wouldn't bite before this day.

During the middle ages there would be himmelsfärdsspel - plays illustrating the events, this tradition is not very commonly practiced these days, but you can still see it in some rural parts of the country. (If Medieval mystery plays are what you're looking for Visby is the place you wanna be, where they have a Medieval week every year in August.)

The Swedish celebration of this day carries on the rebirth message of Easter and many activities, even Masses, take place outdoors to fully utilise the sunlight that's returned after months of darkness and gloom.

Valborgsmässoafton (St. Walpurgis eve) and Student Caps

The 30th of April is the feast day of St. Walpurgis, an English princess born in 710 AD. She lived with the nuns in Winborne Abbey, where she was also educated, for 26 years. She was the brought to Germany by Saint Boniface, her mother's brother who was also the Archbishop of Mainz, to help to make Christian the Germans. Once there she became a nun and later abbess of the monastery in Heidenheim where she lived until her death on February 25th, 779 AD. Canonized on May 1st 870 AD, by Pope Adrian II, (or it could also be the day when her body was moved or "translated" to lie next to the body of her brother), in Sweden we celebrate her on the eve of her Feast Day; Valborgsmässoafton - Walpurgis night. Her bones were, after her canonization, moved from Heidenheim to Eichstätt where they were placed in a rocky niche from which a miraculously therapeutic oil started sipping, drawing pilgrims from far and near.



In the Middle Ages a cult was developed in the memory of St. Walpurgis, which had as it's main objective to fight witches and evil forces.

Sir James Frazer wrote in The Golden Bough about St. Walpurgis' eve in Sweden; "The first of May is a great popular festival in the more midland and southern parts of Sweden. On the eve of the festival, huge bonfires, which should be lighted by striking two flints together, blaze on all the hills and knolls"

Valborgsmässoafton in Sweden is an evening when witches (or the good fight against them anyway) are central to the celebrations. We light fires to protect against them and some people dress up as witches. It's an eve where dark forces run wild, only to be warded off at the dawn of St. Walpurgis Day - May 1st.

April 30th is also celbrated by students "singing to the spring". There are student concerts in most cities, often outdoors, and people wear their student hats.



The Swedish student cap (studentmössa), used since the mid-19th century, normally has a white crown, a black or dark blue band and a black peak. At the front of the band is a cockade of blue and yellow, the colours of the Swedish flag. Walpurgis eve is the first day when new students are allowed to wear their caps.