Last changes: February 2010

Friends

If you want official facts about Sweden you can go to http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sw.html CIA:s data about Sweden
There you can find the answers to these questions.
What are the major trades and commodities of your country?
geographical location (what Countries border yours? bodies of water?),
average temperatures during the various seasons?

•  About the parliament of Sweden http://www.riksdagen.se/default____56.aspx
•  A short presentation of Sweden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden
•  Facts about Sweden - including some information specially interesting for those who are seaching their geneology http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/sl_swefact_eng.htm"
•  Religion - Church of Sweden Church of Sweden
  

•   Education in Sweden -http://www.sverigeturism.se/smorgasbord/smorgasbord/society/education/
•   Higher education in Sweden -http://www.smorgasbord.se/smorgasbord/society/education/overview.html
•  The Swedish National Agency for Education ("Skolverket") -http://www.skolverket.se/sb/d/190
  The Swedish National Agency for Education ("Skolverket") is the central administrative authority for the Swedish public school system for children, young people and adults, as well as for preschool activities and child care for school children.
  Regardless of the method, however, the focus is always on asserting the right of each individual to knowledge and personal development.
  
  

  Something about Sports in Sweden is in this page http://www.sverigeturism.se/smorgasbord/smorgasbord/natrecspo/sports/sports.html
Popular Team Sports are Bandy, Icehockey and Football, all very popular and nearly every village has a team.
Just now all Sweden are congratulating the Icehockey Team "Tre Kronor". The team is celebrating that they have won the World Championship and earlier this year the Olympic Games.
Athletics, gymnastics, and the winter sports skiing, skating etc. are common in our country.

Swedish smorgasbord

Smörgåsbord has become a loan word in English - then spelled smorgasbord. The word smörgås means something like "open sandwich", and bord is the Swedish word for "table", but still a smörgåsbord is not a table full of sandwiches. The real Swedish smorgasbord is a table set with many different hors d'oevres - both cold and hot. You go round the table and pick what you want. Fish, pastry, salads, meat, cheese, bread.
At the big festivals there often is a special kind of smorgasbord in Sweden, especially Christmas smorgasbord and Easter smorgasbord.
The popular cruising vessels often have the Smorgasbord as one of the specialities. In this page is a fairly good description of "Smörgåsbord" smorgasbord

In my webpages there are examples of such dishes that are typical for the Smorgasbord. Easter smorgasbord dishes are mentioned in this page
Christmas smorgasbord dishes are mentioned here
Midsummer it is mostly Matjes herring with "gräddfil" - a kind of sour cream - and small new potatoes and chives.
August - Crayfish Feast and Fermented Baltic Herring Party is described in my page http://hem.passagen.se/farila/august.htm
The special Shrove Tuesday buns are named "semlor"

Culture and Entertainment in Sweden

http://www.smorgasbord.se/smorgasbord/culture/ In this page there is links to
Language & Cultural Unity,
Religious Consensus,
Swedish Art - Tradition and Renewal,
Literature, Writers and the Nobel Prize,
Music, Festivals, Swedish Film, Theatre, Opera & Ballet,
Museums,
A Short History of Sweden,
Absolutely Swedish - Outlining a National Character.

Saint Birgitta 1303-1393 In 1999, the Pope named Saint Birgitta as one of the patrons of Europe

LEADERS

Carl XVI Gustaf (born 1946) King of Sweden

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Second United Nations Secretary-General

SCIENCE

Carl von Linné (1707-1778)
was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. He is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy."

Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779-1848)
professor in chemistry, physics and natural history. He extracted the elements calcium, barium, selenium, lithium and thorium. He created the modern way to write chemical symbols and formulas, e.g. H₂ 0 for water.

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) Swedish chemist, engineer, pacifist, innovator, and the inventor of dynamite.
In his last will, he used his enormous fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes

AUTHORS

Carl Michael Bellman 1740-1791 - poet

August Strindberg 1858-1912
multi-faceted author of novels, drama and poetry

Selma Lagerlöf 1858-1940
The Nobel Prize Winner in Literature 1909 -- motivation - "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings"
The generation of my parents read her "Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige" (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils) at school as an introduction to our country. When I was a child, my father read one chapter from this book every Saturday for us children.
Her prominent works mostly are set in the county Värmland

Harry Martinson 1904-1978)
The Nobel Prize Winner in Literature 1974 - - motivation - "for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos"
Novelist and poet, a self-taught working class writer, one of the most important modern exponents of Swedish literature. His poetry is my favorite poetry in Swedish language.
The science fiction poem Aniara is his most wellknown poetry work.

Astrid Lindgren 1907-2002 famous for her books for children, among them Pippi Longstocking and Ronia, the Robber's Daughter,

Karin Boye 1900-1941 - poet not so wellknown internationally but one of my favorite poets

MUSICIANS

Jenny Lind 1820 - 1887> The first Swedish opera singer to become a world star.
At the age of seventeen she was playing the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute.
In 1850 - 1852 she made a tour in US and there she was presented as the greatest musical talent of the world.

ABBA first hit in 1966, won the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 with Waterloo

SPORTS

Ingemar Stenmark (born 1956) Slalom and Giant Slalom Skiier - he is regarded as one of the most prominent Swedish sportsmen of all time.

the background music in this page is our National Anthem
"Du gamla, du fria, du fjällhöga Nord" In the following page you can find the text and a translation of that song and some other Swedish songs.
http://www.scandinavius.com/sweden/sesongs.html