Today we had a guided tour of Karlstad. The town was founded over 400 years ago as a port center to collect taxes. Karlstad is also home to a Selma Lagerlof, a local author who won a Nobel prize for literature. Our tour guide, Kiki (short for Christina), was dressed like one of the townspeople from the mid 18th century.
This afternoon program provided us an opportunity to visit the Swedish National Church. Until a few years ago, the church was part of the government and you were automatically a member if you were born in Sweden. The national Parliament was responsible for all church decisions. This has changed, and now you have to agree to be a member of the church. The church is not state funded anymore. The Sweden National Church is Lutheran. Sweden is very open to different religions and beliefs; however, most people are still Lutheran. The church plays an important spiritual and social role in the community.
A few interesting differences between US and Swedish churches:
1) The Swedish National Church is responsible for cemeteries. The national government charges all people a .25% cemetery tax on income to cover the cost of plot, opening and closing the grave and transportation. The family is responsible for all other arrangements.
2) The state collects a tax from all the church members and provides it to the church. While church membership is optional, the parish we visited today had 21,000 members out of 24,000 people that lived in the parish.
This evening was spent with our host families. It has been nice to stay with people and learn more about the typical Swedish society. My host family took me to their country house about 20 minutes outside of town and then we had a nice driving tour of Karlstad.
I did learn that reality TV is alive and well in Sweden. They have a local reality show called the Farmer Looking for a a Wife. This sounds similar to The Bachelor in the US. They take girls from across Sweden to different farms for several weeks to learn about farm life with the farmer. Once a week, one person is kicked off the show until the farmer has a wife. I guess it is a very popular show, with 1.5 million Swedes tuning in – not bad considering there are only 9 million people living in Sweden.
Swedish meatballs for dinner tonight – yum!
This afternoon program provided us an opportunity to visit the Swedish National Church. Until a few years ago, the church was part of the government and you were automatically a member if you were born in Sweden. The national Parliament was responsible for all church decisions. This has changed, and now you have to agree to be a member of the church. The church is not state funded anymore. The Sweden National Church is Lutheran. Sweden is very open to different religions and beliefs; however, most people are still Lutheran. The church plays an important spiritual and social role in the community.
A few interesting differences between US and Swedish churches:
1) The Swedish National Church is responsible for cemeteries. The national government charges all people a .25% cemetery tax on income to cover the cost of plot, opening and closing the grave and transportation. The family is responsible for all other arrangements.
2) The state collects a tax from all the church members and provides it to the church. While church membership is optional, the parish we visited today had 21,000 members out of 24,000 people that lived in the parish.
This evening was spent with our host families. It has been nice to stay with people and learn more about the typical Swedish society. My host family took me to their country house about 20 minutes outside of town and then we had a nice driving tour of Karlstad.
I did learn that reality TV is alive and well in Sweden. They have a local reality show called the Farmer Looking for a a Wife. This sounds similar to The Bachelor in the US. They take girls from across Sweden to different farms for several weeks to learn about farm life with the farmer. Once a week, one person is kicked off the show until the farmer has a wife. I guess it is a very popular show, with 1.5 million Swedes tuning in – not bad considering there are only 9 million people living in Sweden.
Swedish meatballs for dinner tonight – yum!
The 'sugar castle' that was built as a wedding gift for a very wealthy family. It is now condo's/apartments.
Our team with Kiki, the tour guide. It was windy outside. Left to right: Joe, Kiki, Pete, Kristi, Cassie and Eric.
The church in downtown Karlstad -- one of the old buildings to survive the 1865 fire that took out most of the town.
My host family cabin in the country. It is very nice -- sleeps six. It was built in the 1850s.
My dinner tonight -- Swedish meatballs with pasta boiled in milk (tasted like mac and cheese).
1 comment:
Got the postcard today! Thank you! It is great to get to see all of the team's pictures of your activities. So much to take in in such a short span of time. Hard to imagine it's almost half over. Glad to see you are enjoying yourselves so well & the Swedish people are so hospitable. Ya! Jan
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