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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: blåsippa

Today's word of the day is a little blue spring flower with an unexpected political connection.

Swedish word of the day: blåsippa
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

The blåsippa blooms in Swedish forests between April and May, meaning it is one of the earliest spring flowers to bloom in Sweden, even popping up through the snow in some areas.

The latin name for blåsippor is anemone hepatica, and they also go by the name common hepatica, liverwort or pennywort in English.

It is most common in southern Sweden, although it does grow as far north as southern Norrland.

The blåsippa is a protected flower in all of Sweden, meaning that you can’t dig it up or pick the flowers, so you won’t see the small blue flowers for sale in florists or garden centres.

In some areas, the rules are even stricter. In Halland, Skåne, Stockholm and Västerbotten counties, and parts of Västra Götaland county, you are not allowed to remove or damage the flowers or even collect its seeds.

The name blåsippa is a compound made up of the word for blue, blå, and the word sippa, which is the Swedish name for plants in the Anemone genus, which are related to buttercups and sometimes referred to in English as windflowers.

Other common plants in this genus you may also come across in Sweden are vitsippor (literally: “white sippor“, known in English as wood anemones), and gulsippa (“yellow sippa“, known in English as yellow anemone, yellow wood anemone, or buttercup anemone).

From left: backsippor (pasqueflowers), gulsippor (wood anemones), and blåsippor (anemone hepatica, also known as common hepatica, liverwort or pennywort). Photo: Jurek Holzer/SvD/Scanpix

The word sippa can be traced back to the Finland-Swedish word for vitsippa used in the Nyland or Uusimaa region of Finland: säper. This in turn comes from the French word chapel, borrowed into Swedish from the German schappel or scheppel, which means “crown of flowers”, “diadem”, “royal crown” or “bridal crown”.

In popular culture, blåsippor are perhaps most well-known as the official flower of the nationalist Sweden Democrats political party since 2006. The flowers are also blue and yellow, the same colours as the Swedish flag. 

Almost all of Sweden’s political parties have historically had official flowers, and some still do, such as the Social Democrats’ red rose, the Left Party’s red carnation, the Centre Party’s four-leaf clover and the Green’s dandelion.

The Christian Democrats had a wood anemone or vitsippa prior to 2017 and the Liberals had a cornflower prior to 2016. The Moderates are the only party without an official flower, choosing instead a blue letter M as their party symbol.

There is also a popular Swedish children’s song about blåsippor, Blåsippan ute i backarna står, about children picking blåsippor in the spring and running home to their mother, saying that they no longer have to wear shoes or socks because spring has now arrived.

Blåsippor don’t catch colds,” their mother says, telling them they still have to wear shoes and socks as it’s still winter.

Example sentences:

Får man plocka blåsippor?

Are you allowed to pick blåsippor?

Nej, blåsippor är fridlysta i Sverige.

No, blåsippor are protected in Sweden.

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it.

It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon USAmazon UKBokus or Adlibris.

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For members

SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: dymmelonsdag

The Wednesday before Easter has an unusual name in Swedish: dymmelonsdag. Where does the name come from?

Swedish word of the day: dymmelonsdag

There are a few different names for the week before Easter in Swedish, with the most traditional being stilla veckan, or “quiet week”, as it’s the week Jesus is believed to have died. Other terms are passionsveckan (passion week) and tysta veckan (quiet week).

Most people nowadays will just refer to it as påskveckan (Easter week).

The Wednesday of stilla veckan, which has a number of names in English, including Holy Wednesday, Spy Wednesday, Good Wednesday or Great and Holy Wednesday, is known as dymmelonsdag in Swedish.

Onsdag here means Wednesday, named after the Norse god Odin, usually Oden in Swedish (this is where the English word Wednesday comes from too – Woden’s Day, as he was known in Old English).

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But what’s a dymmel? Well, the term dates back to medieval traditions for the Wednesday before Easter.

This day was traditionally seen as the first day of påskfriden or “Easter peace”, the three days leading up to Easter where the metal clapper or hammer (the bit inside a church bell which makes it ring) was wrapped in straw or swapped out with a quieter wooden clapper, known as a dymmel.

This dymmel stayed in place until Easter Saturday, after which påskfriden was over and the original metal clapper was put back in place.

It’s not entirely clear where the term dymmel comes from, but an earlier spelling of the word in Old Swedish is dymbil. This may have its roots in English – it bears a resemblance to “dumb bell”, which, before becoming a name for a type of gym equipment, was a type of wooden contraption which church bell ringers could use to practise ringing without making too much noise. 

Dumb here is used in its original sense of being silent or unable to speak, rather than the newer meaning of somebody lacking intelligence.

Another term for the week before Easter is dymmelveckan, named after this wooden clapper.

This isn’t the only way in which påskfriden was marked – other sounds were muffled and as little work as possible was to be carried out. Instead, people were supposed to think about Jesus’ life and regret and repent their sins.

Dymmelonsdag was considered to be a dangerous day, so it may not be the best idea to use “dumbbell Wednesday” as a sign to hit the gym.

Tasks that involved things that rotated – such as machines with wheels like spinning wheels and millstones – should be especially avoided, as they were seen as contributing to Jesus’ suffering.

This kind of work was referred to as kringgärningar – roughly translated as “spinning acts”.

In some parts of the country, such as Småland, the dymmel was considered to be some sort of creature, which would mess with the yarns if you spun fibres. In Skåne, it was believed that if you spun yarn on this day, the roof would blow off.

It wasn’t all bad, though. If you made sure not to mention lice or fleas on dymmelonsdag, you wouldn’t see them for the rest of the year, and you could get revenge on a neighbour by running around their manure pile naked before sunrise on dymmelonsdag… although maybe skip that one this year unless you want the police to get involved.

Example sentences:

Skärtorsdag och långfredag känner du redan, men visste du att onsdag i påskveckan heter dymmelonsdag?

You already know about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, but did you know that Wednesday in Easter Week is known as dymmelonsdag?

Varför heter det dymmelonsdag egentligen?

Why is it called dymmelonsdag?

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon USAmazon UKBokus or Adlibris.

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