Posted July 4th, 2004 @ 08:26am by Erik J. Barzeski
Question: How do you celebrate your country's independence day?
My Answer: My country prefers barbecues and fireworks. I'll do the barbecue part, and I'll see some fireworks from my apartment, but I never have a set plan. Today I'll catch up on reading, hit the target range, and do a lot of reading.
You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.
This blog contains posts, all written by me, and comments, only some of which were written by me.
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Posted 04 Jul 2004 at 9:27am #
We don't have an independence day in Sweden. We have the "National Day" on the 6th of June. Let me check the national encyclopedia... (an account there was the best thing I've ever bought.)
Since 1983, the 6th of June was a celebration of the day that Gustav Vasa was elected king of Sweden in 1523, and the day the Swedish constitution was accepted in in 1809.
In 1916-1982, the day was a celebration of the Swedish flag.
There's really not much in the way of celebration, though. It's not even a holiday. We Swedes aren't very nationalistic. 🙂
(Side note: the only people in Sweden who go around and call themselves nationalists and patriots are neo-nazis and racists, which tends to explain why we don't like it when Americans start ranting about their patriotic duty or somesuch.)
Posted 06 Jul 2004 at 7:09am #
Stop lying. A lot of people? Yes. All of them? Not by a long shot. I personally have a few friends that call themselves nationalists while they are helping new people coming to Sweden with finding jobs, explaining some pecularities with Sweden, teaching them some Swedish, etc.
You're just as bad as "them" if you blindly assume that one label must mean another. If any person can call himself a nationalist at any given time, then due to your logic they'd at that moment be a racist. That doesn't make sense.