My Easter Dinner

Let me tell you about a fantastic Swedish family I know. They had me and some other visiting Americans over for Easter, treating us to a traditional Swedish Easter meal, which includes herring and eggs. More on that later. The meal included fresh cheeses, a lasagna-like dish, roasted lamb, a Mediterranean salad with black olives and ricotta cheese, lax (thinly slices smoked salmon), and potatoes. Bo said that a Swede, especially the older ones, will ask "where's the potatoes?" like a I might ask "where's the beef?" Potatoes are a stable agricultural product of Sweden and they are, indeed, excellent.

Four types of herring were available. Herring is one of those foods that takes a bit of courage to take the first bite. ("Twas a brave man that first ate a raw oyster" or maybe very hungry.) I like, but not love, herring in tomato or mustard sauce. The picked ones are stronger and I've heard is an acquired taste.

The dessert was a thin chocolate cake, almost a brownie, sprinkled with powdered sugar with fresh raspberries and ice cream as a topping.


This family is amazing. They all speak at least two languages and play music and have traveled the world. Below you see a photo of their basement sound-proofed music room with the family plying a song for us.



The other American family is also fantastic. They also are world travelers. One parent hales from Australia; the other from Calgary, Canada born of Norwegian immigrants. She speaks some Norwegian and will be learning Swedish, a close relative, very quickly. Both are avid orienteers, a sport originating in Scandinavia and very popular all over the world. Orienteering may become a new hobby for D & J, too.

Both families have relatives spread all over the world and yet manage to maintain close family ties. They visit each other periodically, write or email frequently, and use the old fashioned phone: skills D & J will be honing in the upcoming months.

Easter is one of the most important Swedish holidays. They stress Easter witches more than the Easter bunny, although candy plays a big part. Read all about the Swedish Easter traditions here, which says "In Finland and Sweden, traditions include egg painting and small children dressed as witches collecting candy door-to-door, in exchange for decorated pussy willows. This is a result of the mixing of an old Orthodox tradition (blessing houses with willow branches) and the Scandinavian Easter witch tradition. Brightly coloured feathers and little decorations are also attached to willow or birch branches in a vase. For lunch/dinner on Holy Saturday, families traditionally feast on a smörgåsbord of herring, salmon, potatoes, eggs and other kinds of food."

Friends in a new country make the experience far more rich than simply doing the tourist thing....