5-day weekend

Today it was back to work after a looooooooooooooong weekend: Thursday it was Ascension Day (a holiday in Sweden) and lots of people found a way to take Friday off from work as well. On top of this yesterday was a very special day here in Sweden: the national day, the day of the Swedish flag and the name day of the king. This day is not the only day that Sweden is a nation (as suggested by a Basque friend of ours), rather it is the anniversary of the foundation of 'modern' Sweden: on June 6th 1523 Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden. However, it wasn't until 1916 that the day was officially recognised (as The day of the Swedish flag). In 1983 the day was renamed as national day of Sweden and only as late as 2005 was it made a public holiday - in return for which the Swedes gave up having Whit Monday as a holiday.


Even though this was our 3rd Swedish national day this was our first time getting a day off on account of it (as it was during the weekend for the 2 preceding years - a problem that never arises with Whit Monday as we'd like to point out). Fortunately for us it was a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy lunch on the balcony.