What did you learn in School today?

Today, I learned about:

Our daily lives are not easy, there are always things to be done, money to be earned to maintain our lives and sustain our families. It is therefore such a pleasure for me to present the third part about my trilogy with tributes to some of the people and places that mean so much to me, besides my family, of course.

In my two earlier blogs, 113’2023 (2023-04-23) and 151’2023 (2023-05-31) , I presented tributes to some of my friends, and now I have the honor to express my gratitude to my native country, Sweden, where I was born, grew up, and started my professional career, before moving to Brazil.

The 500th anniversary of modern Sweden

You most certainly have heard about the vikings and their mythology. Sweden is one of the countries that was involved in such matters. When the vikings had their glory, Sweden was not a unified nation, there were many different reigns, but slowly during the first half of the 2nd millenium, there started a consolidation, not only of what eventually would be Sweden, but also of its neighbors, Denmark and Norway. A milestone occured in the year 1397, when the so called Kalmar Union was formed, led by Denmark and including also Sweden and Norway. But many Swedes had difficulty in accepting to be ruled by a non-Swede, so on June 6, 1523, Gustav Eriksson Vasa was elected King of Sweden, and from that day on we are entering the modern Swedish era. More about this can be found in reference #1 below.

Two days ago, considering that today is a normal work day in Brazil, the Swedish Consulate General in São Paulo celebrated thus the Swedish 500th anniversary with a fabulous party at the Scandinavian church in São Paulo. I had the pleasure of being invited and, between enjoying the traditional Swedish food and drink as well as meeting old friends, I was also able to take some nice pictures from the event.

The honorary consul, Renato Pacheco, held the opening speech, and after both the Swedish and Brazilian national anthems had been sung, it was time for the newly installed Swedish ambassador to Brazil, Karin Wallensteen, to give her version of why it is so important to know what happened 500 years ago and how it still reflects the daily life in Sweden.

Svenska Danser

One very popular topic during the celebrations was the dance group Svenska Danser (Swedish Dances) from the very south of Brazil that performed traditional Swedish folk dances, like the one you can see in today’s header photo.

Reference #2 contains a link to an earlier live transmission with Svenska Danser, so you can see and hear them in action.

Clan Mac Norse

And there was also an equally popular musical event when the Nordic folk music group Clan Mac Norse presented their joyful music.

Reference #3 contains a link to an earlier live transmission with Clan Mac Norse, so you can see and hear them in action.

Göteborg 402 years

These days have also been extra festive in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden’s second largest city, where the original 400th anniversary of the founding of the city in 2021 had to be postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But now it is was high time to celebrate. I studied at the Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg and of course I would like to have been there in person to make my tribute to this lovely city. You may remember that in an earlier post, 59’2017 (2017-02-28) , Göteborg was elected by the British newspaper The Guardian to be the number one city in the world regarding the social behaviour and attitudes of its residents.

Finally, look at the way FIESP, the mighty industry organization in the state of São Paulo, gave Sweden, with so many companies installed in the state, its tribute tonight:

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Kingdom of Sweden

2: Svenska Danser

3: Clan Mac Norse

*: What did you learn in school today ?