October

26 October, summertime comes to an end and clocks are moved forward an hour.

November 2  is All Saints' Day (Allhelgonedagen or Alla helgons dag). Often, the weekend as a whole is referred to as All Saints' Holiday.

Memorial day for all

Originally, only saints were celebrated. But after a while it was decided that All Saints' Day should be a memorial day for all the dead. In the late 18th century this holiday was removed from the Swedish calendar. But it was reinstated in 1953. It always falls on the first Saturday in November.

In the US, this holiday is called Halloween. Many countries have followed the American example, not least Sweden. People hollow out big yellow and red pumpkins and place candles inside them, and also hold fancy-dress parties.

Dressed up and scary

The children dress up as skeletons, ghosts and witches. You're supposed to look dangerous and scary. The pumpkins too can look quite scary - you cut chunks out of them so that they look like horrific faces, with a candle lighting them up from within.

6 november is Gustav Adolf Day. Gustav II Adolf was king of Sweden from 1611 to 1632 and died on this day. There is a special pastry called a 'Gustav Adolf-bakelse' which people eat to celebrate the occasion. King Gustav II Adolf founded Gothenburg, and the pastry is especially popular there.

9 november is Father's Day, when families give Dad breakfast in bed and a small present. A lot of cake is consumed as well.

10 november is St Martin's Day or 'Martin Goose'. It was originally celebrated in memory of St Martin of Tours, a reluctant bishop who gave all his money to the poor and hid in a goosehouse. The geese's cackling gave him away and he was so angered by this that he decided they should be slaughtered annually on his name's day.
Martin's name day is 11 November, but 'Mårten Gås' is celebrated the evening before, with a meal of blacksoup (svartsoppa) and goose. The goose is roasted in the oven for hours, while the soup is made from goose-blood and spices. If goose-blood is not available, people use pig-blood instead. The meal of roast goose is an old tradition, observed mainly in southernmost Sweden.
 

30 november is the first day of Advent. It also marks the start of Christmas festivities leading up to the commemoration of Christ's birthday.

Den 30 november is also the anniversary of the death of Karl XII, king of Sweden in 1697-1718. He was a warrior king who inherited a large empire and a strong army, when Sweden was a leading military power and the Baltic was a Swedish enclave. Today, racists and other anti-immigrant factions often celebrate this day, and police are often called in to stop clashes between racists and anti-racists.