Swedish Culture (Part 2)

Sverige (Sweden), a Nordic country, it has an extremely rich history and culture. There is centuries it is a monarchy; however, nowadays, constitutional monarchy, in other words, the Royal Family is more representative that administrator. It is because of the premier is who really governs the country. This country lived wars, lost lands, and attempt of invasion. Despite that, they are a peaceful people, who are not involved in the conflicts nowadays. 

 

Swedes are descent of Viking people. This last lived in the land that today is called Sweden, around in the seventh century.  It is possible, even nowadays, recognize some features of Viking people in the faces and lifestyle of Swedish people. There is a city, in south part of the country, called Vikingstad, that the city’s name means city of Vikings. In this city and nearby have been found a lot of stones with writings made by Viking people. Some of these stones are very near of churches and other stones are along the roads.

In the present time, Swedish culture was influenced by American and British cultures. However, nowadays, it is not just for these cultures, since the population is in transformation. There are around twenty years ago, it has been started to enter a lot of immigrants in Sweden, these people are especially from Eastern Europe and Middle East. Nowadays, the immigrant population represents around twenty percent of population who lives in Sweden. And, it is not a surprise, they brought their culture, lifestyle and religion. Their children, despite they are Swedish people, they also carry the influences from parents’ origin.    

There is diversity about the customs between who lives in southern, middle and northern. These differences are felt when someone lives in the regions; but, the differences are not strong enough to mischaracterize the Swedish people. Small habits like, for instance, put the saucer over the cup, it means that you do not want more coffee or tea; and, make noises with the mouth, these sounds represent the words “yes” and “no”, you can find in the northern.

        

    Country’s geography influences in the culture. Like Sweden is in the Scandinavian Peninsula, a small part of the Swedish lands are inside of the Arctic Polar Circle, in other words, in the North Polar Zone. But, the majority of the country is in North Temperate Zone. The continental climate, there are the four seasons. Including, in the winter time, there is snow. In the extreme north of the country, temperatures in the winter may be -40°C (-40°F) and in the summer hardly ever they pass over 25°C (77°F). This way, people needed to suit to natural conditions. This adjustment can be notice in some habits, like spend a lot of time inside the houses and enjoy as much as possible sunny days. 

Stockholm