Monday, September 14, 2009

Birthdays in Sweden according to Parents Magazine

According to an article in the latest issue of Parents Magazine we have a very old tradition in Scandinavia when it comes to birthdays.
"The national flag is hung prominently from a top window of the birthday child's house to mark his special day. When neighbors see it, they stop by and offer their congratulations".
Someone must have missed to inform my parents and all my family and friends of this. Imagine the congratulations I could have gotten over the years....

9 comments:

Idun said...

Sounds very un-swedish! *lol* I've never heard of it either.

Maybe they mixed us up with the norweigans? (That happens quite often over here.) It sounds like a noweigan thing to me. :)

Klixofax(penguin luvr) said...

What the!!??? Where do the magazines get this kind of info?? So bizarre!! And it happens ever so often..Irritating.
Annika signing in from the daughters account...

Ewa said...

LOL! So not Swedish!

Anna, Fair and True said...

Flaggan brukar väl hissas men inte resten direkt!

Du får skriva ett brev till tidningen!

malin2 said...

Well the flag is correct but the rest... no not in my hometown.

Christina said...

My mother's family in Sweden put the flag out for birthdays, not specifically for children's birthdays though. Perhaps the custom is regional? They lived in a small town in Värmland. And they may not do it anymore -- I was but a wee tyke when I was there for my mormor's 70th birthday.

JaCal said...

Idun - yes, maybe? They did write "Scandinavian"... but still - Sweden, Denmark, and Norway are still pretty different countries...sigh... I have never heard of the tradition...

Ewa - the things you "learn" about Sweden here sometimes... sigh...

Anna - ja - flaggor - det är ju vanligt - men att hänga den i fönstret??

malin2 - inte i Stockholm heller. ;-)

Christina - in the window? Or up on the pole? If the tradition is merely Norweigan as Idun wrote above - it sure could be local in Värmland too - makes sense. I have never seen it - but I guess the paper found the information somewhere...
Christina -

Christina said...

Ah, I missed that part about the window. No, the flag was hung outside, not in a window.

JaCal said...

Christina - ;-) To put up the flag on the pole on your birthday (if you have a pole) is pretty common. It's the window hanging I have never heard of.