SwedishSanta

I've had a good first day on my Christmas holiday. Lunch with my friend and old colleague Eva and I had a walk in the town of Kalmar after the meal. The blip is from the major square in Kalmar with the Cathedral in the background. In the foreground is a painting by Jenny Nyström, one of the  creators of the Swedish Christmas symbol; the Tomte, or the farm gnome. Not the same figure as Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas, who comes  from other cultures. 

The Tomte was an ancient  humanlike creature who took care of the stables and saw to the farms well being, including the humans, without ever being seen himself. The animals knew him well and could see him but not the humans. Children could sometimes see him too though, but never the adults. He's been around in folklore tales but Jenny Nyström invented him and gave him an appearance, a face and a character. Often a grumpy old man who could be very annoyed and punish the family if he didn't get paid the bowl of porrige on Christmas eve. He especially loved the big dab of butter in the porrige, that would make him continue making the farm prosperous.

A fun detail; I passed outside the Cathedral after lunch and suddenly had an impuls to go into the building, it's a nice atmosphere in the newly renovated church and I could hear music being rehearsed near the altar. I walked around, looking at the ornaments and figures in there when I passed the two musicians playing, I wanted to listen to what they were rehearsing. One of them, the woman, suddenly said Hi Kjell! I was just mentioning you to my piano player, saying that Kjell (me) helped me with the guitar accompaniment to the song we were playing, only ten minutes ago, about the same time I had the impuls to go into the church. She was one of my students at the folk-highschool where I used to work. Isn't that a bit weird?