Alla Helgons Dag

As I mentioned in my previous post, Halloween is not widely celebrated in Sweden, and I am pretty sure it is because they already have a pretty huge holiday, Alla Helgons Dag, which is All Saints Day, on November 1st. A helpful co-worker of mine told me that we should go to Skogkyrkagården (a large cemetary) as the sun sets to see what it was really all about. So we set out on the short metro ride and noticed that we were not the only people with this same idea. I have never seen so many people and hot dog vendors outside of a cemetary... it was crazy. (Also, I think a lady was yelling at me in Swedish for putting my feet up on the seat on the train, but she was talking really fast, and Blake and I just smiled and nodded, so anways...) By the time we got there it was dark and there were just thousands upon thousands of candles along the paths and at graves:



The holiday is used to celebrate all the saints in the Catholic tradition, but Lutharens use it as a day to remember the dead. It was really quite amazing, it is hard to describe. So here are a few more pictures, and I added part of an article about the event that does a much better job than I ever will of describing the day.





"For many, Friday is a half day and on Saturday morning the main newspapers are not printed. As dusk falls on Saturday, All Saints Day, Swedes stream towards the country's graveyards armed with candles, matches, wreaths and flowers for the graves of their loved ones.The beauty of the candlelight blended with a soothing melancholy creates an emotionally-charged atmosphere. Small rural churchyards are visible across fields, dotted with flecks of golden light, while in towns and cities people murmur hushed greetings to those visiting neighbouring graves.

Probably the most spectacular place to witness the festival is the massive cemetery of Skogskyrkogården in the south of Stockholm. Chatty crowds drift from the train station, past hot dog vendors and candle stalls, as if to a football match. But as they enter the cemetery they are greeted not with the roar of a stadium but with a silence almost as overwhelming. Thousands upon thousands of marshal lights line the winding road into the churchyard, the glare becoming more and more intense until at the top of the hill in the centre there is barely space to walk between the rows of candles.

It is an awe-inspiring sight, but here and there real mourners, perhaps remembering a loved one for the first time, are a reminder of the day's meaning."