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CHRISTMAS

Four events to help you avoid Christmas

If you've had it up to here with jingling bells, red-nosed reindeer and glögg, check out our top tips for all you Grinches out there.

Published: 22 December 2016 06:59 CET
Four events to help you avoid Christmas
Robert Gustafsson in 'The 100-year-old Man' whose sequel is about to be released. Photo: Music Box Films.

1. Watch a Bollywood movie

What better way to forget the December darkness than by watching a Bollywood movie? 'Dangal' is a sports drama film about India's first female wrestler to win a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and her sister, who won silver. Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, it tells the heartwarming story of a father's dream to teach his children to become professional wrestlers.

According to the organizer, this is the first time a Bollywood Movie is released in Sweden a day before it is released in India. It premieres today on December 22nd, followed by regular shows on the 23rd and 26th.

When: December 22nd and 26th (Stockholm), and 23rd (Malmö)

Where: Svenska Filminstitutet, Borgvägen 1-5, Stockholm; Panora Folkets Bio, Friisgatan 19D, Malmö

Tickets: 160 kronor

2. Watch a Swedish movie

'The 101-year-old man who dodged the restaurant bill and disappeared' – the hyped sequel to Swedish Oscar-nominated movie 'The 100-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared' (we sense there's a pattern here somewhere) – is out in cinemas on Christmas Day. We haven't seen the sequel ourselves and can't promise anything, but much of the dialogue in the first film was in English.

When: In cinemas from December 25th

Where: Either support your local community cinema, or check SF's website.

Tickets: Around 135 kronor

3. Listen to Palestinian music

Palestinian pop singer Mohammad Assaf, who has only grown in popularity among Palestinians since he won the second season of Arab Idol in 2013, is performing in Malmö on December 28th. His repertoire consists of Arab love songs, upbeat pop numbers and patriotic hymns.

When: December 28th

Where: Malmö Live

Tickets: 100-995 kronor

4. Look at street art

Street art festival Artscape is back during the holiday season in Gothenburg. Eleven works of art from the festival are lit up across the city by street artists from Britain, Argentina, Canada and Sweden. Wrap up warm and check out the map here. Warning if you're serious about avoiding Christmas: there is a severe risk of accidental exposure to some of the city's Christmas events.

When: Until January 8th

Where: Gothenburg

Tickets: It's free

 

 

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HISTORY

Do Taylor Swift’s ancestors really come from a small parish in rural Sweden?

A community history group has tried to get to the bottom of a persistent genealogy rumour surrounding US mega star Taylor Swift and a small parish in north-central Sweden.

Published: 15 May 2024 11:49 CEST
Do Taylor Swift's ancestors really come from a small parish in rural Sweden?

Lodged in the mountains between Östersund and Norway, Offerdal in the region of Jämtland is home to some 2,000 people. It may also be the ancestral home of Taylor Swift.

Or maybe not. It’s not entirely clear. Bear with us.

“It’s been written about in several newspapers since as long ago as 2014. Because specifically Offerdal and a village called Söderåsen are mentioned in those articles, we’ve been curious about this for a while,” Sara Swedenmark, chair of the Offerdal Community Association, told The Local.

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When Swift decided to launch her Eras Tour in Sweden (she’s set to perform in Stockholm on May 17th-19th), the group decided to look into her possible connection with Offerdal, which is mentioned on several American genealogy sites, but always without reference to a source.

During their research, they found two people from the area who could possibly be related to Swift. One of them is Olof Thorsson, who is the main person rumoured to be one of her ancestors.

“We can see that there are people who connect them, but in one place the line is broken because there’s a man who married several times. So we haven’t found a direct line of descent, but we’re not saying it doesn’t exist. Because we’re talking about around 1,200 people in 400 years, there could be other possibilities,” said Swedenmark.

A church in the parish of Offerdal. Photo: Offerdal/Wikimedia Commons

Thorsson travelled with his family in 1641 to New Sweden – a Swedish colony in what today are Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland – on board the ship Kalmar Nyckel. He is said to have committed a crime in Sweden and was sent abroad for penal labour.

“We haven’t found which crime he allegedly committed, even though there are conviction records from this time, which makes us doubt whether he actually lived here,” said Swedenmark.

“Another person who was banished from the country around this time in Offerdal received it as punishment for having put witchcraft on the neighbour’s cattle.”

An oil painting by Jacob Hägg, depicting the ship Kalmar Nyckel. Photo: Sjöfartsmuséet/Wikimedia Commons

But they also found another possible connection with Swift: a man known as Jöns The Black Smith Andersson, his wife Maria and their daughter Brita, who travelled to New Sweden in 1654.

“There seem to be certain relations here via half siblings in the early 18th century,” said Swedenmark, urging readers to reach out if they have more information. “The Church of Sweden started keeping population records in the later half of the 17th century, so it’s not completely straightforward to track down roots from this time.”

So in other words, nothing concrete that confirms that Swift does indeed descend from Offerdal, and the parish is not the only place in the world that’s purportedly connected to the artist. Genealogy company Ancestry claims she’s related to the American poet Emily Dickinson, and according to My Heritage she’s also related to France’s King Louis XIV and US actor Johnny Depp.

Offerdal, by contrast, is rather less grand. But what might life have been like at the time?

“Offerdal in the 17th century was an uneasy place, because Jämtland was being torn between the Swedish king and the Danish-Norwegian king,” explained Swedenmark. “There were a lot of wars in close succession and farms were seized if the owner swore their allegiance to the ‘wrong’ king. There were around 30 villages and 600 people in the parish.”

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