Hejsan!

Here's a visual for you... a big hall, full of kids, international booths, the smells of yummy foods, and echoing laughter... can you feel it?  Well here's some photos of our recent multicultural event put on by the PTO for the public elementary school here.  It was a great success, and it felt good to donate our time, talents and food to help the children be exposed to other parts of the world and learn more about their ancestors. I even had a real Swedish "folk dräkt" sent to me by my mother, and it fit like a glove (a very tight glove) but nonetheless I felt like a true "Dalkulla".  (Swedish girl from Dalarna like this painting sold Stockholms Auktion Verk).

These pics just give you a quick taste, it was really a lot of fun and something you too might want to do at your schools to help kids in the US become better global citizens!

Swedish genes

Jeans by Tiger of Sweden

Are you an American of Swedish descent? If so how much do you know about your ancestors, such as where they are from, the customs, their names and language?  If you are similar to many Swedish Americans that I've spoken to then answer is not much.  This is sad I think and it makes me wonder why.  American Italians for example seem to keep their culture alive, Irish Americans know which village their family came from, but the Swedes often don't know.  I speculate that the Swedes decided that in the new land that they would try not to stick out.  Good old "lagom" (lagom description) crept in and although they couldn't keep the accents from their English I imagine that they wished it for their children   Also I suppose that life in the old country where they were starving was not something that they wished to reminisce upon. One man I talked to said that his grandfather refused to talk about his childhood near Umeå but let slip that he had lived with Samer (formerly known as the Lapps).  Now wouldn't that be absolutely gripping tale to share with your children?!  But he wouldn't speak of the hard times or allow Swedish in the house.  If you are of Swedish descent ask around, talk to the older generation about their memories, and maybe dig a little deeper.  Here's one place to start genealogy research.  The older generation may have chosen silence but it doesn't mean that we need to, maybe you'd like to check out "My Swedish Roots'?.  It's on Facebook and the web and it's a good place to get help with genealogy.  Lycka till!  (Good luck)