National Day

Today Sweden celebrated its national day, and the local open air museum hosted a celebration with a multi cultural theme. It was very nice, with food, music, etc. from many different countries. I, who love national dress of every description, thought it was nice, though there could have been a greater variety in cultures represented.

I wanted to wear my folk costume (in public for the first time), and Tobias asked his dad if he could borrow his, and that was all right. My father in law’s folk costume is from an area (Vemmenhög) just next to where mine’s from (Oxie), so Tobias and I matched each other well. I thought he looked very handsome in it. It consists of a cotton shirt, a wool waistcoat, breeches, wool stockings, a wool coat, a silk neck kerchief, tasselled garters and a felt hat. He left the coat at home, it being such a sunny, hot day, 26 degrees C (almost 79 degrees F).

I, who planned to have some detail pictures taken of my costume, didn’t want to leave out the knitted sweater, but decided to wear it anyway. It was quite warm, but not unmanageable. Several people told us we looked nice and (on the way home, a lady even stopped her car to compliment us), some asked if they could take a picture of us, which was fun.

And now a couple of close up pictures of my costume.

Tomorrow I'll start working full time. More money for us to live on, but less time to be together. The modern way of life is odd; couples and families seem to spend most of their time apart… I can live with it temporarily, but how can those who live like this all their working lives manage?