Any Swedish mumsnetters out there?

[plicks]

I've been reading 6yr old dd "happy times in noisy village" by Astrid Lindgren and we're really enjoying it. The children live on a farm in Sweden and they have described a few traditions that we tried to Google further but couldn't find any info about!

One was a spoken word game called "nutting", the other was a tradition at Easter called "holy Wednesday tickets" where the children pin jokey notes on each other's back? Can you please confirm that this is a real thing?

Also they dress up as witches at Easter.

Much quicker to get direct answers. In case there is no one about, there might be some background here

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheColddSwedishWinter

Not Swedish.

Expecting a Swede baby though, infact you guys might be able to help me understand the laws around parental leave for cross border families.

He's Swedish, temporarily working in the UK for some Swedish Govt thing.

During his time here, we met, had a whirlwind romance and now I'm pregnant, 6 weeks.

Whilst not planned, both of us are very happy, seeing this as a bit of a miracle.

He's going back to Sweden for a few months in the New Year before coming back late Spring full time but until then can come over on weekends/take leave if needed to be here for appointments and partner duties.

I want to have the baby in the UK and move to Sweden shortly after. The benefit being I'll have my family around me, speak the native language and be able to get maternity leave etc whilst working out logistics with him.

Parental leave and allowances are much more generous in Sweden than in the UK, but I obviously aren't entitled to them.

We however, think he may not either. According to Swedish Govts website, special rules apply if birthing parent (I'm a mother thanks) resides outside of the EU/EEA, but won't explain further what those rules are.

Is there anyone familiar with these special rules and can explain?

Or would it be better if I apply for residence now despite being in the UK as his partner and expecting his child?

I am! But I'm at a loss, trying to remember the book to recall what "nutting" could be. Tell me the circumstances and I'll remember!

The pinning of tickets to backs must be a local custom. Astrid Lindgren wrote such a lot of lovely stories describing loads of customs that might already be obsolete, she was a real treasure of a person for keeping history alive! It's probably real, but I come from the middle part of the country and have never heard of it.

However yes, at Easter children traditionally dressed up as little witches and went round to all houses with "Easter letters" ie cards, and got sweets in return. Sadly the tradition is all but killed now and replaced with Halloween. There are different traditions as to on what day you do it though - where my family comes from originally it's on Easter Eve, where I live now it's on Holy Thursday.

@SoonToBeSwedeyMummy It's better I think if you start a separate thread with a good title so people can find it!

I have

I'm not Swedish and don't know, I'm sorry, but just wanted to say we also have an Astrid Lindgren book I used to read to the children at bedtime around Christmas time, The runaway sleigh ride. Beautiful wintery book.

I can't remember the specifics of nutting now, I tried to find the book to take a photo of the paragraph but it must've been a library one!

Thank you so much for responding! I thought this thread had proper tumbleweeded 😆.

That's so interesting to hear about the different customs, we're reading another book in the Noisy Village series now and Lingdren makes Swedish country life sound so idillic, and the pride she has in that way of life shines through.

The books are so funny through, me and dd have returned to a couple of the most funny chapters over and over.

Ah I just looked it up and it must be out of print as it's so expensive everywhere I've looked! Would love to read it.

What a pity! It's such a beautiful book. I can't part with it, sorry

Of course! Sorry I wasn't hinting 😆

I will keep a look out for it 🥰

The runaway sleigh one must be when Lisabet jumps on the back of a sleigh for a ride and gets stuck out in the middle of nowhere in the snow? All blue and snow and tiny tiny Lisabet all lost? It was one of my children’s favourite too, we’ve read it so many times!

Astrid Lindgren was just a fabulous person. I’m getting a little weepy here.

But the nut game, I’m wondering if it might have been filipin? If you crack a nut with two kernels you eat one each and next time you see each other the first one to speak wins? Or a variety of that. The one I learnt at school was just that both had to be silent and the first one to speak lost. But yes, a definite game!

Yes that's the one 😊