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THE YEAR IN SWEDEN

April in Sweden: twigs, jigs and pagan rites

The Year in Sweden - April: Journalist Kim Loughran sketches a month by month account of the country he has called home ever since his accidental migration in 1966.

Published: 13 April 2010 13:58 CEST
Updated: 2 April 2017 01:09 CEST
April in Sweden: twigs, jigs and pagan rites
A Walpurgis bonfire in Sweden. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

Outdoor markets fill with feather dusters … wait, those are dyed feathers wired to bunches of birch twigs. You put the twigs in water to light up your home as you watch tiny green leaves emerge to hasten spring. In small towns and suburbs, little girls dress as freckle-faced witches “just in from Mount Blue”. Often with younger brothers in tow, they knock on doors to shake down their neighbours for candy Easter eggs.

Ice still covers northern lakes, and jigging (fishing through a hole in the ice) can be a pleasure if you’re lucky enough to catch a bit of warming sun. But it can be dangerous recreation; taking a chance on the thickness of April ice has led to many an abrupt dip. Those who stay dry might bring home a perch or, in the north, a char.

April 30th is the last day motorists can drive with studded tyres, barring menacing snowstorms. Studs rip up asphalt, spraying dangerous particles into the air. Winter tyres, studded or just deep-treaded, are obligatory from December 1st to March 31st. Everyone taking a driving licence has to learn to handle a car on ice. Scheduling your test for summer months doesn’t buy any reprieve; the exam can be done on oil slicks. By default, headlights are on when you start your vehicle because there’s no way to legislate for daylight visibility – shifting weather can turn bright sunshine to murkiness in minutes. It’s a big gain in safety at zero cost or inconvenience.

READ MORE: Read our travel section for tips about what to do and where to go in Sweden


March in Sweden: slush, bears and skiing royals. Photo: Ulf Palm/TT

Road deaths hover around 260 a year. Postal vehicles drive on the right like everyone else but with the steering wheel on the kerb side so the driver can service mailboxes without having to get out. More than every second person eligible for a driving licence has a car and almost every fourth car on the road is a Volvo.

April could not end more dramatically: bonfires rage across the country in aggressive farewell to winter cold. Walpurgis Night, the 30th of April, is a breathtakingly pagan rite, with choruses gathering round pyres to dispel the cruel winter and conjure up a good harvest year. Romance in the air and empty bottles in the gutter.

Birds are back. White wagtails can be seen in car-parks foraging for insects. Early arrivals include swans, larks, plovers and doves. Tropical birds wait as long as they can – the willow warbler, for example. Among the last to show up will be the honey buzzard, following the coastline to navigate almost up to the far north.

The Year in Sweden by Kim Loughran is on sale now at the AdLibris online bookstore.

This article was written by Kim Loughran in 2010 and updated by The Local in 2017.

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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