Yellow becomes the truth

I should start this post by saying that the programme for this evening’s order of events at Trostorp disappeared after the actual event so, sadly, I can’t name the singer or the speaker. It was there before we went but gone by the time we returned. A shame, really, because we really liked the singer.

Valborg, short for Valborgsmässoafton, celebrates ‘the last of April’ here in Sweden. It chases out the cold of Winter, sees off the evil spirits and casts eyes towards the joys of a long hot summer. The ideal way to achieve this is to light a big bonfire and have a good sing-a-long. And we helped tonight.

We have wanted to attend a Walpurgis night event since we first heard about them. Unfortunately, various things have made that impossible. But not this year.

If you look closely into the flames, you might just see a few of the evil spirits being ousted.

We had decided to see off the cold at Trostorp, the open air museum we visited on my birthday last year with Fi and Lauren. I like to think of it as the day of the rune stone quest. Of course, last November, the heritage place was empty of people. Not tonight though, as people gradually arrived to see the ritual burning.

In fact, the way people arrived and left was quite bizarre. Some people didn’t bother arriving until the fire was actually lit, while others left during the conflagration. Still, once the bonfire was ablaze, there was a good healthy crowd there to watch.

It was a shame that a lot of them missed listening to the chap singing songs while playing his electric keyboard and beseeching the listening audience to sing with him. Of course, we knew neither the songs nor the language. It did help that just before the fire started, we were handed a song sheet with lyrics.

We made an attempt to sing, stumbling over the mostly, unfamiliar words. Mind you, Mirinda made a few very good translations, though I don’t think the one called Kristina claimed that ‘yellow becomes the truth’. And without being too confident, I thought we did a passingly pleasant version of Sång till friheten, though I’m sure a Swede would probably disagree.

The whole night was an excellent entertainment. Well, apart from the guy who gave the speech. Firstly, he was late and, secondly his speech was really bad. He stared at his phone throughout and ummed and ahhed a lot. I have no idea who he was, but he may have had something to do with the ICA in Vagnhärad.

In fact, this guy was much better.

We went and chatted to him afterwards, saying how much we’d enjoyed him and asking for translations of the last song he played; one we tried to sing along with. He was amazed when we told him we were Australians and that Walpurgis isn’t celebrated down under and bonfires were a definite no-no.

In fact, he understood completely when I suggested that most of New South Wales could be one big bonfire this time of year. Besides, I added, we don’t really have seasons and the evil spirits mostly hang out in Western Australia.

All in all, an excellent evening out, thoroughly enjoyed by this couple of locals.

And happy birthday to King Carl. Betcha thought I’d forgotten. As if.