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Posts Tagged ‘skansen’

Stockholm v. Vegas: Drop-in weddings at Skansen

Monday, May 7th, 2012

Wanna tie the knot but forgot to plan ahead? Your ship has not sailed just yet!

marriage photo
It’s not quite the same as the 3am spontaneous drive-through wedding chapels in Las Vegas, but Swedes need a little time to get ready for spontaneity. On June 9 from 10am to 3pm, Skansen (in Stockholm) is offering the planned, unplanned wedding op for couples wanting to get hitched right and proper.

marriage

All straight or same-sex couples just need to pick between a religious or civil ceremony, take a queue number (what’s spontaneity without organization!), and wait for your very own 10 minutes of nuptial bliss. And while standing in line ends at 3pm, organizers have vowed to carry on offering for the groom/bride to kiss the groom/bride until no couple can claim they’ve never been kissed.

Prospective couples need only get their paperwork in order ahead of the day (hindersprovning or vigselintyg) pay 500kr at the entrance (visit to park included for the happy couple –guests pay accordingly) and the…wait your turn.

By the powers vested in me by the state of Skansen, I now pronounce you bridal couples to be.

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Tags: drop in, skansen, stockholm, wedding
Posted in Swedish culture, stockholm | 1 comment »

Swedish sing-along”Blame it on the gays”: Not hate inciting

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

As left or liberal as Americans consider my political viewpoints, I tend to place right of center in Sweden on matters, especially on socio-political matters and even “quite right” fiscally.

In today’s SvD (one of Sweden’s daily newspapers) I read about a report that a case of “incitement of hate towards a populous group” (hets mot folkgrupp)against a humorous and satire-dripping song/performance was dismissed by the committee appointed to investigate the complaint. Apparently the song was performed at the über popular summer sizzling sing-along event at Skansen, Allsång. I don’t think that it’s merely coincidental that the performance took place during the Stockholm Pride Festival.

gay pride

I had never heard the song, knew nothing of the case and was very curious since this particular law I find…well…hyper-sensitive and too restrictive. The basis of the law is to prevent active, intentional and even unintentional incitement of hate aimed at particular groups of people.

Now I don’t espouse or condone hate or inciting hate, but I don’t really subscribe to a notion that we should legislate against it if there’s no call to act upon that hate (like an incitement to violence.) I just can’t see making a very naturally human condition to be bigoted as something to criminalize. I mean, if I have an unfounded and inflammatory opinion about Blue People, I really should be able to express it provided it lacks a call to hurt Blue People.

So I watched the performance and listened to the text. It is absolutely hysterically funny and so obviously a satirical parody of bible-thumping Christian fundamentalists (probably inspired by the Westboro Baptist Church who once maintained a website called “God Hates Sweden”). The song’s text basically repeats that all of today’s woes, all wars, all problems…you name it, it’s all the fault of gays/homosexuals.
bögarnas fel
Here’s a link to the YouTube performance. Unfortunately, while the link says it’s subtitled in English, I haven’t seen where the subtitles are supposed to be.

Of course if you take the text literally, it would be deemed in breech of the law, but the committee quickly returned a judgement that it was not intended to be literally interpreted.

It’s good that the discrimination authority had a sense of humor. Not everything can be taken too seriously.

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Tags: allsång, bögarnas fel, Grotescos, hot mot folkgrupp, skansen, svd
Posted in Swedish culture | 3 comments »

Grand romantic gestures: Locked in love (No, not about Vicky and Danny)

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Love is in the Stockholm air. To a certain extent it’s suffocating. (If you’ve managed to escape the Love Bombardment, Love 2010 is the lead up to the Crown Princess’s wedding June 19th.)

On the other hand, why not? A little more love can never hurt and one Love 2010 event has even sparked the somewhat lacking spontaneity in the average Swede; the drop-in wedding.

Skansen, an already popular tie-the-knot backdrop for couples, came up with a rather unprecedented drop-in concept for getting hitched. How utterly un-Swedish to have a monumental event without eons of planning. In all seriousness, Swedes will reserve dates to grab a cup of coffee with you weeks down the road.

But in true Swedishness, even spontaneity requires a little planning ahead. For the 357 couples (according to SvD) who dropped by Skansen last Saturday to say “Ja” (translation for “I do”) they did have to come with the legal forms for getting married already approved and in hand. Then it was only a matter of taking a queue ticket and waiting for their number.
(I wonder if they had a LED display or if someone just called out the next number – one of those beeping/flashing paging systems would work great so the couples could roam Skansen while waiting.)

Whatever the case, my sincerest congratulations to the newly wed couples. And here’s to continued spontaneity.

Speaking of wedlock, a second sign of love locked me in the other day while crossing Västerbron (my favorite bridge in Stockholm.)
wedlock

A new grand romantic gesture had locked on in Stockholm. Love padlocks are increasing on the railing at the highest spot on the bridge. Sources say they first arrived in January 2009. The idea is that a couple attaches a padlock (preferably marked with the couple’s names or initials and/or a date; some of the newer padlocks were formally engraved) and together they toss the keys into the lake.

I’m kind of wondering how long before the “master key” is used by the city. bolt cutter