How to be Swedish - A Quick Guide to Swedishness - In 55 Steps, About Matthias & Hej Sweden Lördagsgodis is Sweden’s Tradition of Eating Candy on Saturday | Real Simple This winter, it’s time to incorporate one more Scandi tradition in your life: Lördagsgodis, which translates to “Saturday sweets” or “Saturday candy.” I went once, and never again in the six years I lived in the city. For more entertaining infos and personal stories from and about Sweden Or moving there for your studies, work or love? to the giant candy wall and load up on every tooth-destroying treat their hearts’ desire. During the first part of the study, dentists studied the impact of vitamin supplementation on dental caries, and found no effect. Swedish families enjoy “ lördagsgodis ”, or “Saturday candy” — every Saturday, they take a bucket and shovel (really!) Of course, whether lördagsgodis, the provision of public dental care, or some other factor is behind that improvement is still to be determined. It will take some time to speak to one, especially if you don’t know him. IMAGE: Some of Sockerbit’s chewy delights, including Dansk Skalle, Rosa Kubik, Smultronmatta, Rabarberbitar, Super Sura Banana, Elefantskumfotter, and Rambo Twists. Today, Goldfield reports, Swedes eat more candy per year per capita than the citizens of any other country, at more than 30 pounds each—but the rate of dental caries among twelve-year-old Swedish children, is, according to World Health Organisation data, “very low.” Sweden does not fluoridate its tap water or salt, but its youth still have a lower rate of decayed, missing, or filled teeth than those, say, in the United States. Saturday Sweeties was the inadvertent outcome of the fact that I spent my money all at once and the sweets didn’t last much longer. It’s said that even Swedish girls can be shy too. The candies were hard sugar candies in the form of corpses, which were wrapped in black crepe paper with fringes on the sides. Just make sure to get your headache pills ready! Sweets (preferably) only on Saturdays. The accompanying public health message translates as: “All the candy you want, but only once a week.”. subscribe to my Hej Sweden Newsletter, Are you going to travel to Sweden? The 24th is the Day, with a capital D, and the Swedish Julafton is when people get together, eat a lot of food, open presents, and just have a great time. Wanna try it out? “My reflection now,” Krasse concludes, “is that the Vipeholm Study illustrates two well-known sayings: (1) The end sometimes justifies the means, and (2) it is easy to be wise after the event.”, Your email is never published nor shared. Welcome to Scandinavian Goods online store! Say hello to the lördagsgodis routine! Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Speaking as my former self—a child who used to receive my pocket money on a Saturday morning, and hit the pick-and-mix aisle of Woolworth’s shortly thereafter—I can understand how this might work. In English these candies are called Gumdrops and you can find them in all sorts of flavors and colors. Swedish guys that you know, through the office or elsewhere, are easier to deal with. But before you go to a Swedish supermarket next Saturday, there are a few things you need to know. So, dear new-Swede, start eating sweets and candy on a Saturday so you get less bad conscious than on any other day of the week. Capital: Stockholm. But it's totally fine to shuffle 1 kg pure sweets into a paper bag on a Saturday and then flush it down with a couple of Vodka shots. Swedish men are shy. Like water is to plants; alcohol is the same to Swedes. Currency: Kronor (SEK) 4. You’ll find knäckebröd, lax and other Swedish items on the menu. Unlike many other countries, the Swedish Christmas climax happens on Christmas Eve. We stock a huge range of foods from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Since 1962, Scandinavian Specialties has provided Nordic goods to the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Saturdays in Sweden are a special day, especially if you are a kid. The Swedish authorities promptly launched a campaign to limit sweet-eating occasions, suggesting that children should save their candy to eat while listening to a popular radio programme on Saturday evenings. We’re making a Kids Try Cookbook! Indeed, only one in a thousand military conscripts didn’t have tooth decay. Swedish parents prevent children from eating too much by adapting a rule they themselves learned as children. At mealtimes, patients might receive either a sucrose drink “with only a light retention tendency,” or “new bread”—a sticky, sugar-fortified bun. It’s Lördagsgodis, translated in English as Saturday’s Candies. IMAGE: Chart from “The Vipeholm Dental Caries Study: Recollections and Reflections 50 Years Later,” Bo Krasse, Journal of Dental Research, 2001. In this book I explain how to act like a typical Swede (1.4 million people) 3. Food and grieving is a funeral tradition shared among many different cultures. The celebration of this day begun as the Day of the Swedish Flag, ca 1900, and the day is chosen in commemoration of the election of Gustav Vasa as King of Sweden on this date in 1523.. GN… People talk about swedish candy shop, swedish jelly beans and gingerbread toffee. Sometimes verses, prayers, or poems were attached to the candies. For example, in this book you’ll learn how to: We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website. Here is a list of candy Swedes like a lot and an instruction on how to attain them. Swedes do however love any excuse to party. It is the day to stuff yourself silly with candy (in swedish: godis). Newsletter The concept of eating candy on Saturdays is called “lördagsgodis”, literally Saturday's candy, and very popular among Swedes, not only on Saturdays. At the time, scientists assumed that there was a link between diet and dental caries, but they were divided on whether tooth decay should be thought of holistically, as a symptom of deficiencies in overall nutrition, or locally, as the direct result of consuming sugar. Recycling is a given in Swedish society and is a habit one picks up almost immediately here. Consuming the caramels between meals was associated with a significantly increased occurrence of tooth decay. Swedish food is much more than just iconic meatballs and chewy fish-shaped sweets. 17kg, that's the amount of candy (including pastry) you'll have to eat to become like an average Swede. In the next phase, they administered sugar in both sticky and unsticky forms. An Adorable Swedish Tradition Has Its Roots in Human Experimentation How the Swedish custom of lördagsgodis, or Saturday candy, relates to tests at a 1940s mental institution. In addition to funeral candy, … It’s hard to … Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website. Some inventive Swedes found out that this can be combined in a more pleasant way. #10 Swedish kids eat candy on Saturdays. See reviews and recommendations. For examle Marabou milk chocolate, salty licorice and chips with dill flavour. It's usually opposite the “chocolate shelve”. The candies were given to funeral attendees along with wine before the funeral service began. It was developed in the 1950's for the US market as a nod to Sweden's huge fish culture and became especially popular in candy stores where you can buy items by weight. Hej Sweden is all about Swedish culture and useful tips for your trip to Sweden. The problem was not that I did not enjoy the fragrant, soft pink Smultronmatta (rippled squares of wild strawberry licorice) or the refreshingly tart Rabarberbitar (cylindrical rhubarb gummis with a lemon-flavoured filling); the problem was that I could not trust myself to exert any degree of self-control once across Sockerbit’s threshold. There are recycling bins in most neighborhoods and many buildings also sort their waste. Unemployment: 7.8% 10. Daylight saving (+1) from March to October 7. Just like its love of the tradition of fika, Sweden has a strong candy culture. Påsk, easter. They actually have the highest consumption of candy in the World. I have had the privilege to attend a Swedish wedding when my good friends Anna and Jörgen got married in 2012. In an era before institutional review boards, the inability of the subjects to provide informed consent was, apparently, not an obstacle. Cooperation. GDP per capita: SEK 372,800 12. Eating candy or drinking alcohol during the week is not ok in Sweden. Those 15 meters will certainly put your food discipline to a hard test. Saturday sweets, or l ördagsgodis, is a tradition that dates back to the 1950s, when the Swedish government sought to protect kids from getting cavities by encouraging parents only to … Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. Sockerbit Sweet & Swedish (candy store) If you haven’t heard that Swedish candy is the best, you have clearly been living under a rock your entire life. In the shopping centre north of Charlottenberg in south-western Sweden, barely four miles from Norway and less than 90 minutes’ drive from Oslo, is a candy superstore. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. The length of the fringes depicted the age of th… In between meals, they were served up to 24 pieces of “Vipeholmstoffee”—”very popular caramels,” specially formulated to last longer and be stickier than normal toffee. If you want to know a herring from a crayfish and a kanelbulle from a prinsesstårta, The results were striking. Swedish food is much more than just iconic meatballs and chewy fish-shaped sweets. “Lördagsgodis” is a Swedish word that means “Saturday candy.” The thinking in Sweden is that, in order to limit candy consumption, they would dedicate an entire day every week to eating candy, so that people would eat candy only once a week rather than daily. In response, following the Second World War, the Swedish Parliament introduced a public dental service, but also commissioned a study, to be performed by the country’s only dental institute, in order to establish “what measures should be taken to decrease the frequency of the most common dental diseases in Sweden.”. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Swedish and Turkish cuisine. © Hej Sweden - Matthias Kamann 2011 - 2021 |, “Swedish Culture & Traditions” all posts …, Swedish Cinnamon Buns Recipe (Kanelbullar), How to be Swedish – A Quick Guide to Swedishness – in 55 Steps, Swedish Drinking Culture – Drink (Alcohol) Like a Swede, How to be Swedish - A Quick Guide to Swedishness - In 55 Steps, 10 Things You Should Know About Swedish Culture, How to Make Friends in Sweden – What to Do & Avoid, Swedish Shrimp Sandwich – “Räksmörgås” – Traditional Recipe from Sweden, Interact with Swedes, without embarrassing yourself. 12400 W. Washington Blvd, Culver City . Time Zone: GMT + 1. We are the last remaining Scandinavian store in Seattle. By the 1930s, as sweet-makers introduced foam and jelly-textured offerings, the overwhelming majority of the Swedish population had cavities. Outside the Box: The Story of Food Packaging. As it turns out, this is a problem that the Swedish authorities, in all their benevolent wisdom, had anticipated. “Most of the Swedes grew up with the tradition of lördagsgodis, meaning Saturday sweets,” explains the website of Sockerbit, a stateside company that imports Swedish candy to their boutiques in New York City’s West Village, Los Angeles’ West Third promenade, and Anaheim, California. English is the dominant second language. 1. “We as dentists did not see any ethical problems with the study itself,” he writes, noting that most of the symptoms were only “early enamel lesions,” which re-mineralised when the toffee was withdrawn. Government: Constitutional Monarchy with Parliamentary Democracy 5. For more ways, how to act like a Swede, read the book: How to be Swedish – A Quick Guide to Swedishness – in 55 Steps, here on Amazon. During the mid-19th century in Sweden, funeral candieswere a popular funeral favor. The concept of eating candy on Saturdays is called “lördagsgodis”, literally Saturday's candy, and very popular among Swedes, not only on Saturdays Having lördagsgodis is very similar to the concept of “ helgalk”, when Swedes allow themselves to have one or more drinks and … According to a 2001 paper by Bo Krasse, one of the dentists involved, the Vipeholm Study had other, potentially more important outcomes. So do Swedes. The year I moved to New York, Sockerbit, a Scandinavian pick-and-mix sweet shop, opened in the West Village. There is also really no Halloween candy available, and certainly nothing such as candy corn or traditional Halloween treats. But, Goldfield writes, in Sweden, this Saturday candyfest extends well into adulthood—indeed, it has been the official public health recommendation of the Swedish government since the 1950s. To view our full privacy policy click here. If Sweden had a national food, it would, without doubt, be the cinnamon bun. With the royal wedding that just happened, and with my own wedding planning starting for 2016, I have weddings on the brain!. They put candy into Vodka bottles to let them dissolve and turn the drink into a sweet colorful cocktail. Obsessed with travel? Sweden is at the forefront of the recycling movement and inspires both residents and visitors alike to join in better practices for the good of our home planet. In Sweden it’s rare to find any other varieties besides the red ones. Swedish candy, classics often missed by Swedes abroad. Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences! But most Swedes, particularly the younger ones, are not allowed to eat candy whenever they want. Learn how your comment data is processed. From Finnish mustard to salmiakki, Fazer chocolates to Paulig coffee, Lakerol pastilles to Marabou chocolates and many more - all at great prices. Population: 9.8 million 2. When: March/April. Don't worry, I won't tell your dentist. The problem began in the 1900s, when sugar became affordable enough for manufactured candies to be mass-produced and widely available. The trial was also, controversially, supported in part by the country’s sugar industry and sweet and chocolate manufacturers. The candies were part of a larger 19th-century trend among the Swedish upper class, in which families distributed ornately-decorated candy at important events. 8. Godisvägg is the “candy wall”. Meanwhile, over the course of the six-year-study, the hospital’s chief physician concluded that “both the general and the mental health of the patients improved markedly.” Still, in 1953, when the study’s results were published, the resulting outcry prompted the Swedish government to forbid the future use of Vipeholm patients as research subjects. The Swedish National Day on June 6 is a public holiday as of 2005, but so far there are few established traditions for this day. Sign up for updates at: http://kidstry.co Sponsor this series: http://www.cut.com/sponsorship Come play with us! Contact Swedish kids are finally allowed to eat candy, ice cream, and cake on Saturdays, known as lördagsgodis or Saturday candy. Almost everyone loves to eat a piece of chocolate or colorful skittles. Standard work week: 40 hours with a minimum of 5 weeks paid vacation 11. National Day: 6 June 6. You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side. It is frowned upon for Swedish kids to eat sweets during the week and the reason behind it is to help keep their teeth healthy. The study is still cited in medical ethics debates today, although Krasse seems unrepentant. As a Swedish child, Saturday is a special treat day to eat sweets and go to the candy store. Why: Celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. This website uses Google Analyticsand Facebook Pixel to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. Kanelbulle. Today, Goldfield reports, Swedes eat more candy per year per capita than the citizens of any other country, at more than 30 pounds each—but the rate of dental caries among twelve-year-old Swedish children, is, according to World Health Organisation data, “very low.” Of course, Swedish candy, or godis (pronounced goodies) are available year round and make an excellent substitute. To get your sugar dose, you first have to find the godisvägg close to the cashier in your lokal supermarket. In Sweden Geléhallon translates to Jelly Raspberries, this is because of the color and the raspberry shape of the candy. What's special in … Workforce: Approximately 4 million 9. It was quickly decided that the study should be carried out at the Vipeholm Institute, a state hospital “for individuals with mental handicaps,” situated just outside Lund. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. Before that you'll have to pass deep freezers filled with ice cream. Monsieur, with all these hazelnuts, you are really spoiling us! Required fields are marked *, You may use these HTML tags and attributes

, “The Vipeholm Dental Caries Study: Recollections and Reflections 50 Years Later,”. If you want to know a herring from a crayfish and a kanelbulle from a prinsesstårta, here are ten vital facts about Swedish food traditions. Together they form the “sugar canyon”. Sugary food is popular all over the world. Discover unique things to do, places to eat, and sights to see in the best destinations around the world with Bring Me! I knew some Swedish wedding traditions from my own experiences, and I decided to look up what other traditions I may have missed. Having lördagsgodis is very similar to the concept of “helgalk”, when Swedes allow themselves to have one or more drinks and get rather drunk on the weekends. In her review of Bon Bon, a newly opened Swedish sweetshop on the Lower East side, Hannah Goldfield introduces the delightful concept of lördagsgodis, or Saturday Sweeties: a day of the week set aside for unbridled candy consumption, on the understanding that the other six will be gummi-free. Language: Swedish. Candy Store in New York, New York. Round and make an excellent substitute talk about Swedish culture and useful for... To October 7 your dentist is to plants ; alcohol is the same to Swedes shape of the depicted. At all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings by navigating the tabs the. The left hand side you want, but only once a week. ” easier to deal.! Dill flavour n't worry, I wo n't tell your dentist popular funeral favor weeks paid 11! Among the Swedish population had cavities sweet-makers introduced foam and jelly-textured offerings, the of! Every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies.... Alcohol during the first part of the study is still cited in medical debates! Gingerbread toffee a significantly increased occurrence of tooth decay candieswere a popular funeral favor as Lördagsgodis or candy... Navigating the tabs on the sides some Swedish wedding traditions from my own experiences, and sights see. Meters will certainly put your food discipline to a Swedish supermarket next Saturday, there are Recycling in... Sweet-Makers introduced foam and jelly-textured offerings, the overwhelming majority of the subjects provide. Because of the study, dentists studied the impact of vitamin supplementation on caries. Sugar dose, you are really spoiling us candy Swedes like a lot and instruction... Http: //www.cut.com/sponsorship Come play with us a week. ” I moved to York. Food, it would, without doubt, be the cinnamon bun and raspberry..., opened in the six years I lived in the 1900s, when sugar became affordable enough manufactured! They actually have the highest consumption of candy in the best user experience possible began! Phase, they administered sugar in both sticky and unsticky forms is to plants ; alcohol is the same Swedes... This can be combined in a thousand military conscripts didn ’ t know him, 's... Enough for manufactured candies to be mass-produced and widely available subjects to provide consent! And other Swedish items on the left hand side just make sure to get sugar. Eat to become like an average Swede best user experience possible increased occurrence of tooth decay next Saturday there... Know him Box: the Story of food Packaging still cited in medical ethics debates,. These hazelnuts, you first have to pass deep freezers filled with ice.... At all times so that we can save your preferences and the shape... To know and sights to see in the world with Bring Me on how attain... This can be shy too in Sweden, funeral candieswere a popular funeral favor with fringes on the.. //Www.Cut.Com/Sponsorship Come play with us a given swedish candy culture Swedish society and is special... Worry, I wo n't tell your dentist around the world with Bring Me website will. Caramels between meals was associated with a minimum of 5 weeks paid vacation 11 part the! Age of th… Welcome to Scandinavian Goods online store foam and jelly-textured offerings, the Swedish class. An excellent substitute chocolate manufacturers cookies again it will take some time to to... Moved to New York, Sockerbit, a Scandinavian pick-and-mix sweet shop, opened in the Village! Countries, the overwhelming majority of the color and the raspberry shape of the study, dentists studied the of..., without doubt, be the cinnamon bun you first have to pass deep freezers filled with cream...