I know, I know. It's not the Christmas season just yet, but the temperature here has finally dropped to a whopping 19 C (67 F) and to celebrate the colder weather, I always find a warm drink.
I usually drink hot chocolate to celebrate, but I don't have any at the moment, and the only warm drink I have on hand is glögg. So, glögg it is.
Plus, if Hemköp and ICA can put julmust out on the shelves on October 2...
...I think I can drink glögg on November 5.
I found this glögg in a local store last year! If you're wondering why so much, it was on sale. For those of you who don't know, julmust and glögg are Christmas drinks in Sweden. Julmust tastes a little like Root Beer, but not really. They also market it during Easter too. Glögg is mulled wine with almonds and raisins.
I'll also take this opportunity to mention something else I connect with colder weather: Candles.
And more specifically, candles in Sweden. Candles are everywhere in Sweden.
Again, this may be one of those little details that many Swedes just don't notice, but I see them all over the place!
You'll find candles in many different settings. They sit on kitchen tables and outside restaurant doors. They sit in the window of a home and adorn a banquet room. They light up a living room and glow in a church sanctuary. They brighten the path down a gravel road. They are placed lovingly on graves during All Saints Day and in windows during Advent. They are a hallmark of Christmas celebrations like Lucia, and so much more.
It's natural that you'll see more candles during your stay in Sweden if you go during the darker months. The generic word for candle in Sweden is ljus. If you literally translate that, it simply means "light". And that's a good thing to have when it gets dark at 4 PM.
I never gave candles a second thought until I lived in Sweden, but it didn't take long before I understood all the candle hype. When it gets dark in those colder months, candles just makes things brighter, more joyful, more mysigt.
There was no lack of candles during my October trip either:
One of the most beautiful and breathtaking moments of my life has to do with candles and Sweden. It was All Saints Day in 2004 and I was in Stockholm. My host family and I went to a cemetery outside of the city. We went there to visit the grave site of my host Dad's Dad. We lit a candle and placed it on the grave and I learned about the man whose name was engraved on the headstone.
Afterwards, we walked up to the top of a hill where a bonfire was being tended to. I stood there with the others, looking into the bonfire on that clear, frigid evening. I watched for a little while as the flames jumped into the night sky, then I walked around to the other side. And that's where I saw it.
A thousand points of light.
I stopped because my breath was literally taken out of me. I stood there on that hill and saw nothing but light. I couldn't see the graves down below. I couldn't see the people standing near those graves. I could only see the flickering of a thousand candles. The night was so dark, everything was invisible - except the light. The light stretched so far, I couldn't see an end. It continued into the distance, farther than my eyes could reach.
There were stars in the sky and stars on the ground that evening. It felt as if time had stopped and I was standing in the middle of a sky that stretched from here to eternity. It's a moment and a memory I've held in my heart for years, one that I hope I never forget.
I bought a home last year and I had a difficult time deciding how to decorate it. I wasn't sure what I wanted, but I knew there was one thing I needed. Candles. Lots of them. You'll find them placed all over my home and I think this came from my time in Sweden. Candles just help create an atmosphere of warmth and light and hope and joy.
Oh, and they make things mysigt too.
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