Birthday of Axel Oxenstierna

Axel Oxenstierna was born June 16, 1583. He was the son of the Council of the Realm, Gustaf Gabrielsson Oxenstierna, and Barbro Axelsdotter Bielke. Axel got a good  education and visited three German universities. When he came back to Sweden he was employed at the court of the king and became Council of the Realm in 1609. When Karl IX died and Gustav II Adolf becme king Axel made sure to improve the privilages of the Swedish nibility. In 1612 he became Lord High Chanellor and worked closely with the king for the next 20 years. They both wanted to turn Sweden in to one of Europe's leading countries. In order to acomplish this education, administration, the military power and the finances of the crown all had to be improved which led to a reform in 1634.

When the king died in 1632 Axel made the arrangements for the government that would rule in the young queen's place. The whole family Oxenstierna profited before the queen came of age as he gave his brother and cousin important positions within the kingdom. When the queen came to hold all the power she was entiteled Axel's power decreased. The queen abdicated in 1654, something Axel had worked against, and he died soon there after.

Axel's position in Swedish history is unique. Even though he might seem egoistic and powerhungry he truely thought that what was best for the nobility was also the best for the country that he served.

Source:

• Nationalencyklopedin http://www.ne.se/article/article.jsp?i_art_id=278251&originalURI=/axel-oxenstierna
• Wikipedia  http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Oxenstierna

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Summer Holidays

The summer holidays are starting for a lot of Swedish schools this week and yesterday it was time for "my" school. I teach at the same school that I went to over 20 years ago and some traditions are the same. Back then, and up to only a couple of years ago, we started the day by going to the parish church by bus. We spent about an hour there, listening to music, the principal held a speach and the minister said some words before we went back to our school where the 7-8 graders spent some time with their main teachers in a classroom before going on summer holiday. The 9 graders ate cake in the canteen and got their grades before running out from the school where parents, relatives and friends were waiting. Then each class rode around town on a hay waggon behind a tractor.

Some years ago laws changed in order to make sure that people of different religions were not left out so schools are still allowed to go to church and celebrate the beginning of the summer holidays but the minister is not allowed to give a blessing and there should not be any prayers. Traditional summer hymns are allowed. One of our principals decided that we should have our celebrations in our assembly room instead so yesterday we all gathered there. The 9-graders sat in the middle in front of the stage and had 7-graders on one side and 8-graders on the other. Some of our students performed  on the stage, our two principals made a sketch and said good bye to the 9-graders and then there were more music before all the classes went to their class rooms. This year I had to say good bye to my class 9C so we ate a chicken wrap and had some cake before they gave us gifts and we gave them their grades. After that all the 9-graders  walked out from the school to stand with their classes infront of the school until we, the mentors, cut a ribbon and they could run out to their relatives and friends. Each class of 9-graders then ride behind a tractor or on a truck through town. Each class decorate the waggon or truck the night before with birch, baloons and funny signs. Personally I think our class had by far the best signs.

Another tradition is that in the evening all the 9-graders gather to watch funny sketches and dance numbers where a group och students make fun of students and teachers (in a warm and loving way). After that busses take them to a secret location where they have dinner and dance a while before saying their final good byes. 

Photo taken by Agnes Johansson (or her dad ;) )

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Military Memories - Propaganda: A Swedish Tiger

In fall of 1941 Bertil Almqvist created a symbol for the awareness campaign that started in November the same year. The campaign wanted to encourage the Swedish people to keep quiet about anything that could harm neutral Sweden.

At this time Sweden's neighbouring countries were occupied wither by the Germans or the Soviet Union. The symbol was a tiger with yellow and blue stripes with the text En Svensk Tiger. The Swedish word tiger both means the animal and keeps quiet. Apart from wanting people to be quiet the symbol would encourage people to stay strong, just like the tiger.

The symbol has become the symbol of the Swedish Armed Forces but the "Museum of Readiness" owns the rights to the symbol.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_svensk_tiger

Picture:
Ensvensktigerskylt2 djuramossa
By: Anders Lagerås original by sv:Bertil Almqvist (1902-1972)
License: CC BY-SA 3.0


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Swedish Author Jan Guillou

Jan Guillou

Author Jan Guillou was born in 1944 in Stockholm. He studied law for two years after finnishing school and after that he became a journalist for Fib/Aktuellt in 1966. In the beginning  the magazine used to publish people's stories but after a while it more and more turned towards being an adult magazine. In 1970 he started working for the magazine Folket i Bild/Kulturfront where he uncoverd the IB-affair, that the government had been doing espoinage. The story made Jan famous.

Since then Jan has been the host of TV-shows and written over 40 books. Ten of them are about Carl Hamilton, a Swedish James Bond, which have all been turned into movies. Another really popular serie is the  four books about the Knights Templar Arn Magnusson and his heirs. Only the two of the books have been turned into movies but they became really popular. The books acutally created a whole new tourist industry for the area where the books take place, in Västergötland. The story is about Arn and the love of his life, Cecilia. They are punished by the church for having sex before they got married and the fact that Arn had slept with Cecilia's sister. Therefor they must make penance for twenty years, he as a Knights Templar in Jerusalem, and she in convent. The story is fascinating and there has been a lot of research done for the story. Jan mixes facts with fiction in a very good way. There are lots of details about people and places that have excisted and that has been important both for Swedish history and world history. While reading you learn about Sweden's early history, how it really became a country.

Guillou's latest serie is about three Norwegian brothers and their lives from 1901 and onwards. I have not read these myself but listening to the story about Arn has made me really curious about his other books and this serie has been recomended to me by a friend who likes the same type of books as I do.

Source:
Jan's own publishing house Pirat Förlaget: http://www.piratforlaget.se/jan-guillou/fakta-om-jan-guillou/

Picture: Jan Guillou på Bok- och biblioteksmässan 2013.
By Albi Olsson
Under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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Wordless Wednesday and Wedding Wednesday

This photo comes from my grandfathers collection but I have no clue who the people in the picture are. Neither is there any information about the photographer Noak Jönsson, only one more photo by him in Porträttfynd.

According to Bröllopsguiden, the folk costume went out of fashion towards the end of the 19th century and people started looking more at how the nobility dressed. Since common people could not afford to own a lot of dresses they needed one that could be used for more than one occation so therefor the dress was black up until the 1920's. The bride started carrying a boucet towards the end of the 19th century so we can pin the photo to have been taken somewhere between 1850 and 1920 so far. Wikipedia says that the men held the bouqet from the 18th century and it was not until 1888 that the women held and chose the bouqet so now we have trimmed of almost 40 years. So the picture was taken between 1888 and 1920. The man is wearing a frock coat and those were common up until around 1920 as well.

I am afraid that I will not get any further with this picture but I will keep my eyes open for more information on the photographer.

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Tuesday's Tip - Uniforms of the Swedish Army

Hans Högman has a site about his genealogy and much more. One thing I found really useful is his information about uniforms of the Swedish Army so I thought I would make it a Tuesday's Tip. I had several photos with men in military uniforms and thanks to Hans's information and pictures I am able to place the pictures in the right time frame.

http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/militaria.htm

Grey uniforms m/1910 and dark blue uniforms m/1886 with hats m/1865-1899

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National Tests

Every spring all children in grades 3, 6, and 9 take national tests. Third grades do tests in Swedish and maths, while six-graders and nineth-graders take have them in English, maths, Swedish, natural science (chemistry, physics and biology) and civics oriented subjects (history, civics, geography and religion. When it comes to natural science and civics oriented subjects (could be a bit Swinglish but I do not know how to translate it properly) only one of the subjects in each category is chosen for a school. This year our school got chemistry and history. Secoundary school also has national test for some subjects.

The tests are spread out over the whole semester and each subject has several tests. In English there is one listening test, one reading, one written and one oral. Science has two written exams and one lab text. In third grade the teachers decide when to have the tests where as sixth and nineth grade has specific dates set by the Swedish National Agency for Education, who also creates the tests. The exceptions are the oral tests which the teacher themselves can decide over. 

So why do Swedish students have to go through this? The tests funcion as a support for teachers, they are a guide line, so that they know that they are giving the students the right grades/scores/marks. For me it is a relief when my students pass the tests and show that I am not way off in their grades. The tests are not necessary for the students in any way when it comes to their choices in further studies. The scores are not used when they apply for a program or a school. I think that the tests are something the students both fear and look forward to because for them it is a receipt as well on what they have learned during their years in school.

Tomorrow is the nineth-graders last test and it is the second part in history. Even though it takes a long time grading the tests I always look forward to it because I am so curious about the end results.

Classroom by Håkan Dahlström

Picture source:

Classroom by Håkan Dahlström

License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

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