In Which I Experience Swedish Patriotism

June 6th is Sweden's National Holiday. I was looking forward to being in Stockholm, the capital city, to experience some Swedish patriotism. It was an interesting cultural lesson.

First, some background: Sweden has been "neutral" in every war for the last 500 years or so, and has, like England, been more of a conquerer that has lost most of her colonies rather than a colony like America that has won independence. So Nationaldagen is not a celebration of independence. In fact, it's a little unclear exactly what is being celebrated. It is the day that a king was crowned in 1523. It is also the day that Swedes reformed their government in the late 1800's. The explanation that made the most sense to me was that so many immigrants were surprised to find that there was no day to celebrate the land which they had made their home that the Swedes finally started to feel sheepish and declared one.

And that didn't happen until... 1983!!! Yes, you read that right. But in 1983 it was decided that it would be harmful to the economy if Swedes took another day off work, so it wasn't declared a national holiday until... 2005. Wow.

Here we are in front of Stadshuset

But I found all this out afterwards. So when I took my five kids off to Stockholm to see the festivities. I made sure we all had flags to wave. Guess how you can tell the tourists on June 6th in Stockholm? They're the ones waving flags.

It's actually sad. Because many Swedes like their flag and feel some sense of national pride when they see it. But the unfortunate circumstance is that many Neo-Nazi groups here in this country have made the Swedish flag their symbol. So it has almost become a declaration of racism to fly the Swedish flag. There was one flag flying above the king's castle, and a few flagpoles outside Stadshuset, the parlimentary building. Otherwise it was just us and the other tourists.

We missed the train to Stockholm, but we got on another train going the right direction. I had to buy new tickets, and we had to make a connection, but we made it to Stockholm Centralen, the central station.

Eating at a sidewalk cafe in Gamla Stan

Stockhom is a beautiful city. It is built on islands connected by bridges, so there is water everywhere. People often refer to it as the Venice of the north. Many of the streets are still cobblestoned.

We had a little walk while I got reoriented, but we found our way across to Gamla Stan, or Old Town. Here is where many of the old buildings and the castle are located. After we had some lunch we walked to the castle, which was open to the public for the holiday.

The Swedish military put on a special Nationaldag show in the courtyard outside the castle which we watched. I was impressed. They did a 21-gun salute and marched around in circles in the European way, swinging their hands up to shoulder height and with plumes and gold braid.

They also had a very impressive mounted orchestra, with matched horses and drums and tubas. Seriously impressive, if you ask me, to ride a horse in formation while playing, just as an example, a trombone.

So the mounted orchestra all lined up in the middle of the courtyard, and the military stood at attention, and the cannons shot off their twenty-one shots, and the flags waved proudly in the breeze (I forgot to mention that the military did have flags). And the crowd of many thousands clapped politely.

So then the orchestra played the Swedish national anthem, and asked the crowd to sing along. One man standing near me removed his hat. There was a collective mumble, in which one American could clearly be heard singing "Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!" Yep, that's me. The crowd then clapped politely. (But not, I think, for me.)

The next order of business was giving medals. Ten men lined up in the middle of the square and were presented one by one. The Commander in Chief (not the president in Sweden, just their highest-ranked military officer) was present to personally pin a medal on each man. Some of the men had civil clothes. I asked why they were not in uniform, and was told that since their term of service was finished, they had already given back (!) their uniforms. As the medals were presented, the circumstances were described in which each had fought to deserve a medal. Most were ín Afghanistan; for example, one man had run back under fire and rescued wounded soldiers which were being left behind. The crowd clapped politely.

The announcer then thanked the Commander for being present. The crowd clapped kind of politely.

The announcer said that the festivities were over. The crowd left.

Is it just me? Did you miss it too? Where were the HOO-AHs when the soldiers were given their medals? Do we get tears in our eyes when we hear of the bravery and sacrifice it takes to keep us safe? Do we or do we not sing our national anthem loudly? (Maybe that's just a Kelley thing?) Do we respect and cheer for our military leaders, even if we disagree with their methods? I really, really thought this was a universal thing.

If you are American, you may be like me in that you are very patriotic. You may also be like me and assume that everyone loves their own country - why live there otherwise? In America, patriotism is widely considered a positive attribute in a person, and does not exclude appreciation of other cultures or disapproval of government policies.

And I guess that's the point of seeing other cultures. So that we as Americans can understand that the American way isn't the only way, or even the only right way. Since June 6th, I've had many interesting conversations with Swedes and Swedish-Americans about patriotism. One comment which I thought was especially telling was "If we say that we are proud to be Swedish, we might offend someone who is not Swedish."

I've been reading a fascinating book which I recommend to all Americans who have Swedes in their lives. It's called Amerikanerna, Sådana är de, så tänker de. It is written by Staffan Ekendahl, a journalist who lived for many years in America as a correspondant.  He has a fairly balanced view of the positives and negatives in American culture, although I can't say that I agree with everything he says. But that's not the point. It is not so much a picture of American life as it is an absolutely fascinating picture of one Swede's reactions to America.

I will leave you with a few quotes from Ekendahls's book.

In the American national anthem exists a large part of American character, American style, maybe even the American soul. The most widely-known phrase, which is quoted often, is the last lines in the refrain, "the land of the free and the home of the brave." There is no doubt that this is how Americans perceive their country and theirselves. If they should at some point feel pessimistic, which would be uncharacteristic and therefore unlikely, they are inspired by their national anthem.

The Swedish national anthem might reflect our soul, or at least our perception of ourselves: "...you quiet one, you joyful and beautiful one..." and "you are enthroned on memories of ancient days of greatness" and at the end the slightly defiant "I want to live, I want to die in the North".

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The majority of Americans believe that the role of government is to provide equal opportunities for everyone. In Europe the majority believes that government's most important role is to take care of those who have difficulties.

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