For those who missed the ‘Learning Swedish’ video, ‘slut’ means ‘end’ in Swedish.
Today is tjugondedagen/tjugondag Knut in Sweden, or ’20th night’. Also called St Knut’s day, this marks the end of the Christmas season. I knew it was coming up, but I was reminded today when my buddy Per reminded me that it might be time to put away the two adventljusstakar in my office at work. (Kind of like being the last house with Christmas lights up).
There are some fun traditions that go along with tjugondedagen. My personal favourite is julgransplundring, or ‘the plundering of the Christmas Tree’. Because Christmas trees were traditionally decorated with cookies and candies and other yummy things, taking the tree down means the kids of the house get to dispose of the decorations when they come off. Once the tree is denuded, the family dances around the tree singing songs (pagan traditions are the best for singing and dancing around nature symbols, and this is a appropriated pagan tradition for sure).  I think the best part of this is the word ‘plundering’, which must harken back to a Viking heritage. 😉
It is also the time to take down all the other Christmas decorations and officially mark the end of Christmas. There is a julavslutningsceremonin (closing ceremony for Christmas) at the burned out site of the julbocken.   Between burning giant goats and ceremoniously saying goodbye to the season, Christmas in Sweden goes out with a bang, not a whimper.
That’s my kind of Christmas celebration! Both that it lasts longer, and the singing, dancing, and plundering. Burning goats FTW.
We got our tree down the weekend after Epiphany, but I only got everything in boxes and puzzled away under the stairs yesterday – everythign was too sore to do it before. So, I know I am feeling better!