Marcela’s Journals

April 30, 2025

Allt Som Den Elden Symboliserar

April is quite a symbolic month and generally one of my favorites every year. Of course, nothing that occurred to me over the past 8-9 months has been something I experienced before, and therefore I didn’t know what April had in store for me on this side of the world.

I don’t know if this will shock anyone, but I changed host families once again! And as you might have seen by now, new families mean new adventures. With this host family, I experienced moving houses (in the sense of moving with the entire family to a new place), making this the second time I’ve experienced that in a year. I like to think that because of this, I know a bit more than half the inventory at Ikea, as we’ve looked at and built furniture during the process.

Ironically, in contrast to my constant moving and having experienced all sorts of environments, I realized that in this new place we’re living in, we’re just down the street from the apartment where I used to live when I first got here. Personally, that area has been my favorite, as it’s just beautiful and overall a convenient area to live in Malmö. I know there’s still a little more time left, but it’s way less than the time I’ve been here for. My friends here have been asking me a lot lately how I feel about leaving Sweden so soon. Yes, there are mixed feelings and some opinions about it, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, let’s enjoy the present!

I spent the entirety of spring break here and there. I first visited Stockholm for a couple of days, and it was really nice to see the city dressed in spring. The remaining time of the week, I visited, in contrast to Stockholm, Hässleholm and Bjärnum. I pretty much spent the whole week hiking in the woods, as the cottage I was staying at was in the middle of nowhere. The smell of pines, the singing of birds, and the breathtaking views of nature were really nice to experience.

I celebrated Easter while I spent my days surrounded by nature. The food we had was the same as what we had for Christmas (except this time we also had lamb). Easter is very colorful not only due to the arrival of spring but also for the decorations people put up: birch twigs with colored feathers, lots of painted eggs and of course little chicks and bunnies.

For children Easter means dressing up as påskkärringar (Easter witches). This comes from a legend where on Maundy Thursday during the week leading up to Easter, witches flew to Blåkulla, a mountain where they would meet and dance with the Devil. Children dress up as witches to go from house to house to exchange drawings and paintings for candy (sort of like Halloween). In West Sweden it is also customary to light bonfires as a way to “scare away witches”.

Fun fact: Sweden is among the countries that consume the most candy in the world (approximately 16kg per person each year according to some), and during Easter there’s an estimate of 200 sek spent per person on candy (that buys about 2-4 kg of candy on average).

As I’ve mentioned in previous journals, I need to update you on how the weather has been. There’s something Swedes call "April weather," and that means it’s April weather. There’s no better way to explain it—April is so unpredictable with its weather that it’s just called that. Some days we had summer, some days we were back in winter, and some days looked nice, though it was freezing, and vice versa. April weather, what can I say...

To kick off real spring though, Swedes celebrate Valborg (short for Valborgsmässoafton). Bonfires are lit across the country on the last day of April to mark the changing of seasons and the arrival of spring. People often spend the day with friends, singing and drinking. Traditionally, the fire was used to scare off predators and evil spirits, but today it symbolizes nature’s renewal and the return of light. Many university students take the opportunity to celebrate their upcoming graduation with massive festivities—especially in university towns like Uppsala and Lund, where the celebrations are famously big.

As I always do every time I post a new journal, I recommend some Swedish music. This time is no other than Simon Superti who I recommend along his album Hemlisar. Hope you listen! Hope you enjoy! 

You probably know what I'm going to say now if you've been reading these. As always, take care and stay safe!

Until I write again, vi ses!