Your Swedish Heritage

måndag 16 juni 2014

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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söndag 15 juni 2014

Gullered Church and Parish

The parish of Gullered is situated east of the town Ulricehamn in the province of Västergötland, right by the sources of the rivers Ätran and Tidan. The parish has its origins in medieval times and in 1554 the parish of Tissered joined Gullered. The parish of Strängsered had joined Gullered in 1548 but becamed its own parish again in 1887. The parish joined the parish of Hössna in 2006

Gullered belonged to the hundred Redväg, a hundred in the southeastern parts of Västergötland, in what used to be the county of Älvsborg. Reväg together with six other hundreds are known as "Sjuhäradsbygden", roughly translated as The Seven Hundred Area.

The church was built in 1844 after drawings of the architect Fredrik Blom. Some of the building material is said to have been taken from the ruins of the church in Tissered. The organ was put in in 1873 and was built by Svante Johansson. In 1951 electric heating replaced the old fireplaces from 1902.

Sources:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullereds_kyrka
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullereds_socken
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redv%C3%A4gs_h%C3%A4rad

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lördag 14 juni 2014

Falkenberg Pride Festival

Today was the first time a pride festival was arranged in the west coast town of Falkenberg. Summer has just begun and the tourists are starting to poor in so the center of town really crowded. A couple of hundred people took part in the parade that walked through the town center and many more watched along the way. Almost all of the big political parties took part and several other organizations, such as the Swedish church. The parade ended at one of the squares where Mari-Louise Wernersson represented the municipality. Head speaker was Rickard Söderberg, gay and proud of it. He grew up in the neighbouring town of Halmstad and was bullied as a child because of his way to dress and act. He has since then become a great tenor but was unknown to a lot of people until he participated in the TV-show "Körslaget" where famous musicians compeet against eachother leading a choir each with people from their home towns. Rickard's message is that love will always win and the people being against homosexuals are against love. He is an active blogger (http://rickardsoderberg.se/wp/), twitter (@GayTenor) and instagrammer (GAYTENOR).

After holding his speach, Rickard sang "Somewhere over the rainbow" and after that activities continued all through town.

Rickard Söderberg

Pride Cake from one of the local bakaries.

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fredag 13 juni 2014

Family Recipe Friday - Chess Squares

I have an old cook book after my grandmother. It is not perhaps that old since it was printed in 1955 but still a lot has changed since then. It covers everything the then modern house wife needed to know about cooking and baking.

On of my favourite recipes is Chess Squares. They are really easy to bake cookies. All you need is:

200 grams of butter
1 dl sugar
4,5 dl wheat flour
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
2 Tbs cocao

Mix the butter and sugar. Add the flour and work the dough so that it just holds together. Do not knead. Split the dough into two halves and add cocao to one half and vanilla sugar to the other half. Split each dough into two and roll them inte balls before rolling them into lengths. Put one dark length nest to a light one and then put a dark one on the light one and a light one on the lower dark one. Try to make them as square as possible befor puttin foil around the dough and putting it in the fridge for two hours or freezer for 30 min.

Take out the dough and take of the foil. Cut the dought into 3-4 mm thick cookies with a sharp knife. Put the cookies on an oven tray. Put the tray in the oven for 8-10 minutes in 200 degrees celsius. Let the cookies cool off. Keep them in a jar or put them in the freezer.

Variations of the chess squares.

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torsdag 12 juni 2014

Those Places Thursday - Gårdstenstorp in Södermanland

Gårdstenstorp, also known as Gålstenstorp and Israelstorp, is a farm in the parish of Kila in the southern parts of the province of Södermanland. It is where my mother, grandmother, great grandfather and great great grandfather grew up. The first person in the family to move to and own the farm was Nils Andersson, my great great great grandfather, who moved there with his secound wife, Anna Persdotter, in 1837. Nils' son Anders and daughter Brita Catharina from the first marriage also moved to Gårdstenstorp. Anders got married to Margaretha Jacobsdotter in 1843 and they had a daughter, Johanna Charlotta, in 1844. Nils dies in 1843 and July 1, 1844, Anders hangs himself in the barn, one month before his daughter was born. Why he took his own life is not known to me. His widow moved and took her daughter with her but Johanna Charlotta would only live to be ten years old. Nils' son Nils, also from the first marriage, now took over the farm and moved in with his wife, Maja Lisa Andersdotter, and their six children (two more would be born on the farm) in 1851. When Nils dies in 1880 his son Carl Johan takes over the farm who, together with his wife Amalia, had eleven children. Konrad, one of the sons, stays on the farm and marries Agnes Hjälte in 1919, togheter they have three girls. Karl Johan dies in 1924 and Konrad dies four years later of septicimia. I have written earlier about my grandmother and her mother.

In 1938 the total land area of the farm was 25,7 acres where half was farm land and the rest forest and grazing land. There was 1 horse, 4 cows, 1 calf, 2 pigs, and 20 hens. The main house was built in the 1890's and stable and barns in 1919.

In 1955 the house was renovated. A basement was added and the house was modernized.

Gårdstenstorp on Wikitree

onsdag 11 juni 2014

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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måndag 9 juni 2014

Breared

The parish of Breared is situated in the province of Halland and is since 1971 part of Halmstad municipality. The village of Simlångsdalen used to be the village of Breared but in 1912 the name was changed. The parsh however, kept its name. The name change because of the hit novel "Folket i Simlångsdalen" (The people in the Simlångsdalen) by the author Fredrik Ström that was released in 1903. Simlången is a lake and dal means valley. The story became a movie in 1924 and 1947.

The church is believed to have been built as early as the 13th century and dedicated to Sanct Laurentius. It was burnt down by the Swedish army in 1563 during the Nordic seven year war but could be rebuilt on the old walls.

There is a total of 23 nature reservs within the parish.