The months of April, May and June have quite a few "Red Days", days when either the Netherlands, Sweden, or both, are celebrating a National Holiday. The Embassy will therefore be closed on the following days:
Link to regular opening hours.
Read more about the days and the Swedish tradition behind it:
On the last day of April, bonfires will be lit across the country, gathering the neighbourhood around it. Everybody joins in the familiar songs of spring, often led by a local choir. Choral singing is a popular pastime in Sweden, and on Walpurgis Night virtually every choir in the country is busy. A common sight on Walpurgis Night in Sweden are students wearing their characteristic student cap, normally white with a black peak.
Read more about the Walpurgis Night Celebrations
Listen to the traditional songs.
1 May is the International Day of the Labour Movement, which has been celebrated since 1890. It has been a 'red day' (a public holiday) in Sweden since 1939. It was the first civil holiday, that is, a day off that is not connected with a religious heyday.
The day was created so that left-wing organisations and trade unions would have a day when it was allowed to protest. In the beginning, mainly the labour movements organised big demonstrations together. Today, demonstrations are organized by the Social Democrats and the Left Party, as well as other political movements and parties, all taking the opportunity to protest on 1 May.
The freedom to express oneself orally and in writing is one of the fundamental human rights. In Sweden, this freedom stems from the world's first constitutionally protected press freedom law, the Swedish Press Freedom Act of 1766.
The people of Sweden have the right to participate in demonstrations, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the ability to move freely in nature and the right to critically examine those in power. This freedom is about creating an equal society.
(Sources: Sweden.se; wikipedia)
Holiday – or Holy Day?
Although Sweden is a highly secular nation, the Swedish calendar is peppered with Christian holidays and Ascension Day is one of those. That means that the Embassy will be closed on Thursday 18 May. However secular modern-day Sweden may be, these holidays are certainly welcomed by religious and non-religious Swedes alike. Read more via this link.
This Christian holiday was a public holiday (red day) in Sweden up to and including 2004. The Swedish government then decided to scrap the day of Pentecost as a holiday, to instead give everyone a day off on Sweden's national day on June 6. Some criticism has been heard from the church - after all, it is still an important day in the church year. Nowadays, the service is therefore usually held in the evening.
As it is often a beautiful period, it is still common to celebrate the Pentecost weekend with outdoor activities. Looking after the garden, accompanying children and young people to a sports tournament or going out to the countryside are popular activities.
Dancing around the midsummer pole, singing songs and enjoying traditional dishes such as herring, new potatoes and strawberry cake, that's what many Swedes do to celebrate midsummer. The festiviteies are held outdoors, whether in a park, on a terrace or on a summer meadow. In particular the Swedish midsummer night is surrounded by tradition, love and magic. According to legend, if the young women put seven different flowers under their pillows on Midsummer's night, they will dream of their future partner. (This magic trick probably works for young men too.) Read all about it here.
