Unlike our American (and French and Norwegian) peers, we Swedes are a bit reluctant to display our national pride. So when our national day, June 6th, was officially made into a public holiday by the Swedish parliament in 2005 it caused some confusion: How to celebrate this day? For expatriate Swedes in New York the answer is easy. Every year the Swedish Church arranges a lovely summery celebration. This year Pastor Gert Lyngemark welcomed everyone and our U.N. Ambassador Anders Lidén spoke.“I’m happy to be here,” he began. “And I am happy that we have a National Day to celebrate. It wasn’t always obvious to have one. Are we Swedes not very patriotic? Our poet Verner von Heidenstam complained that Swedes admire foreign countries but underrate their own.  Often when Swedes are abroad, we feel a need for things Swedish and we are often drawn to them. Like the Swedish Church. In international settings, Swedes often seek out other Swedes, no matter how interesting the other guests are. Occasions like Lucia and Midsummer – typical Swedish celebrations – get more important when you live abroad.”June 6th, said Lidén, is a perfect day for Swedes to celebrate. Historically it marks the day when Gustav Vasa was elected king of Sweden in 1523 (which is considered the foundation of modern Sweden), but it’s also a perfect time of year, early summer with schoolchildren finishing school for summer. “Our psalm Den blomstertid nu kommer expresses so well how we feel. It’s the part of the year with which we want to associate Sweden. Nationalistic feelings don’t have to be associated with war (like it was in Sweden some hundred years ago). We can be proud of what we have, what is ours while still being open to other cultures. We ought to be proud of our country. At the U.N. I see how well-respected Sweden is internationally.”
Lidén quoted Carl Jonas Love Almqvist:

Vad bjuder oss uppriktigt Afrika?
Vad visa kan Amerika?
Vad Asien? Vad allt Europa?
Jag trotsar öppet alltihopa.
Men Skandinavien – det är alladar!
Blott Sverige svenska krusbär har.

Eva Engman sang the impressive Sverige, and afterwards there were refreshments and more entertainment by the choir, singing Uti vår hage, Käraste bröder, systrar och vänner (aka Fredmans epistel nr. 9), Så skimrande var aldrig havet, and En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt. And what would a Swedish National Day be without the songs of Carl Michael Bellman and Evert Taube?
For more information:
www.swedishchurch.net
(212) 832-8443

Below: Church musician Kristina Sturk Steinwall played the piano and led the choir, surrounded by Swedish flags in all sizes.

Do you remember Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner from school? With its storms, spirits, and lurking danger it conjures up the sea and gives the reader goosebumps:

Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water everywhere
Nor any drop to drink.

It’s time to revisit the frightening, fascinating ocean. But now it is Claus Hoie who leads us on the voyage, bringing to life the sea, its creatures and ships as we go. With clear, clean lines Hoie lets us taste the salty winds and feel the chilly depths.
The newly opened exhibition “Natural and Imaginary Worlds” at Trygve Lie Gallery spans forty years of Hoie’s work, and features not only sea life, but an array of giant insects, still lifes and landscapes – all done in marvelous watercolor.
Born in Stavanger, Hoie emigrated to the United States at age twelve, served in the Merchant Marine as an “able-bodied seaman” in his younger years, and went on to receive formal art training at the Ecole Beaux Arts in Paris and the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
“We’re happy to have Claus Hoie here,” said Gallery Director Eirik Fluge. “This exhibition has come together beautifully thanks to curator Phyllis Braff and the Norwegian Immigration Association.”
Hoie said he was honored to be invited to the Gallery and that in a way he’d come full circle.