Today is the National Day of Sweden. The reason for this? Some politicians decided it that way a couple of years ago. Before that, it was the "Day of the Swedish Flag", which just doesn't have the same ring to it. Why give an entire day of the year over to a piece of designer cloth, when you could give the same day to an entire country, be it a small and relatively cold one with lots of people going on and on about the weather and ... pizza? On this day in history in 1523, we crowned a real badass king. And on the same day in 1809, no doubt influenced by said badass regent, the then-new constitution was ratified. It was repealed some 170 years later, when it was the second oldest one in the world still in use. But in grand blog-tradition, that's not the point of all this.
Like I've covered before, we're not a terribly nationalistic people. We have what one writer claimed to be an inferiority complex towards Norway since they celebrate the living daylights (triple word score to the first one who spots the 80's Norwegian pop-reference!) out of their national holiday, whereas we, traditionally, haven't. Now this year is the first when this day is a public holiday which actually means something. Last year, it ended up on some loser weekendian day like Saturday or Sunday. Sadly, we lack the Japanese backup system of making the following weekday a holiday in case that particular disaster should rear it's ugly head at us. And scream. Possibly "Ha-HA", for all I know. So this year is the "first". And according to polls (who dreamt up this one I do not know), two thirds of the people are not planning to celebrate it. Shocking.
I say, much like that writer (why have an opinion of your own when it's just so much easier to take somebody else's? It's what most people do, anyway. And most people in my surroundings seem to be doing pretty well, what with being alive and all), screw it. Celebrate it in your own way. You get a day off work (or for me, a day off from being off) to do with as you may. Reflect on your fine country, play videogames till your eyes bleed, or go consume something. I really don't care. I spent my day reading a biography of H.R.H. the King, who's one daughter I've taught a thing or two. Believe it or not.
Ok, so the reason for that reading bit has nothing to do with it being 060606 today (ooh, number of the beast, watch as I quake in fear at the disappearance of the three zeros holding today together), but rather a distinct lack of will to unpack crap sitting in the garage. But still.
That, however, is not my way of celebrating. That would be reflecting on a fact that managed to squeak by in last night's news. Ever since a couple of years before TV was invented, they've shown this little movie on the TV news every spring, maybe once a week or so. "The sun film" is it's official name. And it's gorgeous, to use someone else's word. It tells you when the sun rises and sets, and how many minutes of daylight have been gained since last week, in three parts of the country. Yesterday, instead of "+36 minutes", it said "over the horizon". And that, my friend(s?), is the definition of gorgeousness.
Having not been back here to sample a Swedish summer for three years, I'd almost forgotten what it's like to be alive in a place where there's still light outside at 10. At night! If I were a slightly more sleepy person, or if I lived a bit more to the north, I would never see darkness. (Until winter came, but I'd be in Acapulco sipping Shirley Temples by then, surely). It kicks the ass in the most invigorating way possible. It's also a bit scary when you think it's five in the afternoon and it's past the kids' bedtime by hours. Not that I have any kids. But yeah.
So, having been an expat for a few summers in a row, I've spent my National Day contemplating the grandness of light. This in light of the news that I will once again set sail in some sort of motorized aero-thing for my adopted homeland, Japan, in a matter of days or possibly weeks, instead of months or possibly years. I shall make every effort to bring this gorgeous light with me.
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