Jantelagen and Påsk

Small differences are interesting. Living in Vietnam, the differences between my life in the US and lives in Vietnam stood in stark contrast. Food carts at every corner and people squatting on the street waiting for a bus (very difficult actually) are hard to miss. Spending the past 2 months in Scandinavia, life is much closer to life in the US, but it is the little things that are interesting.

In Norway, my 2 closest friends are 2 Swedish guys from work, Peter and Rasmus. They have been filling me in on the nuanced differences between Scandinavia and the US. I also got to spend Easter at Rasmus’ house in Ystad, Sweden, giving me a chance to live with his family and really see and discuss differences. Jantelagen, is what I find most interesting. Lagen means law, and from my understanding, it is this sense among everyone not to be too proud or too ahead of the pack. Rather the desire is for everyone to be together. No need for one person to rise proudly from the rest and display it. This I thought stood in stark contrast to what we do in America. We proudly display our awards, our trophies, our achievements. I was telling Peter and Rasmus one day about how I had a Spelling Bee for my students in Vietnam. They said that a Spelling Bee would not happen in Sweden – pitting one student against another? Only to have one winner? I have since bought “Spellbound” to bring back to Norway next week. (Spellbound is a documentary about the Spelling Bee, which if you haven’t seen, you really should). One night in Sweden, I started watching the movie the Devil Wears Prada (I say start, because I fell asleep half way). However, after all this talk about jantelagen, the first scene was very striking. A fresh college graduate goes into a NY magazine to get a job. And as they hesitate to offer the job she starts “Well I was editor of my school newspaper for 2 years and a reporter for all 4 years. I won the outstanding thesis award and I started the….” And she kept going. This scene would not have happened in Sweden. I’ve been thinking a lot if this is a good or bad trait of Americans. I can’t decide, nor do I think its clear cut. There is something to be said for humility, but there is also something to be said for putting yourself out there and really pushing your self – your thoughts? There is an interesting entry about Jantelagen in wikipedia.

I love to see how others countries celebrate holidays and this was no exception. In Sweden (or at least in Ystad, since that is the only place I was) herring, herring, and more herring was the norm. The Swedes also have a tradition surrounding Easter witches. Children will dress up as witches on Maundy Thursday and go around to houses for sweets, which they call Påskkärringar. However, don’t think witches as in green ugly faces and black hats. Rather think aprons and skirts, girls with red rosy cheeks and colorful scarves on their heads.

Finally I was introduced to MyMaps on google. You can click the link here and see where I went in Scandinavia. The cool part is that I have also included photos, so when you click on the locations, you will also see a photo a description of that place (almost all of them have a picture). Let me know what you think.