We're taking a spring break from April 18 to April 21 to recharge and celebrate Easter.
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Five delightfully weird Swedish Easter traditions
Swedes take their Easter traditions seriously. But not in a boring way — more like colourful feathers, candy bribes, and a suspicious number of pickled fish. Here's what you need to know if you're spending Easter in Sweden or want a laugh and some trivia for your next fika with your family or friends.
Swedes send their kids dressed as witches to beg for candy. Normal.
Forget the Easter Bunny. In Sweden, kids dress up as little old witches (påskkärringar in Swedish) — think headscarves, rosy cheeks, and broomsticks — and go door-to-door handing out homemade Easter drawings in exchange for sweets. It's Halloween, but make it spring.
Swedes eat an absurd number of eggs. Like, Olympic levels of egg eating.
Scrambled, boiled, devilled, you name it — eggs dominate the Swedish Easter table. Fun fact: Swedes double their egg consumption during Easter week, chomping down about 2,000 tonnes of them. (Swedes don't mess around.)
Swedes stick feathers in trees and call it decorating.
Walk past any Swedish home at Easter, and you'll see birch twigs (påskris in Swedish) sticking out of vases, decked out with colourful feathers. It's festive, slightly confusing, and deeply traditional — initially used for self-flagellation during Lent. Today? Just vibes.
Pickled herring and shots of snaps — because why not?
Swedish Easter smörgåsbord is a seafood rave. Expect endless varieties of pickled herring (sill), boiled eggs, cured salmon, and, naturally, snaps — a beloved (and dangerous) shot of aquavit, often accompanied by enthusiastic off-key singing.
No Easter Bunny here — Swedes are more chicken people.
In Sweden, fluffy chickens and colourful eggs are the heroes of Easter. The Easter Bunny does exist here, but he or she is more of a background character that no one has ever seen. It's a poultry-powered celebration all the way.
Swedish Easter might sound odd, but we wouldn't have it any other way—colour, candy, chaos. It's just the way spring should be.
