Saturday candy: the strange tradition that Swedes keep until Saturday
On Saturday afternoons, the cobblestones on Liljeholmen in Stockholm are packed with families going in and out of the local shopping center.
If you look closely, you will see that the children cling to an accessory that is included with each week: a bag of loose candy.
Swedes are so used to buying and eating sweets on Saturdays that they even have a special word for them: Saturday sweets, which are literally translated as “Saturday candy“.
– Saturday candy has always been important, says Robert Lundin, who grew up in the 1980s and just bought marshmallows with his five-year-old daughter.
“You wait until Saturday to get your candy. And it’s like a small but important event with your parents. And now I do it with my daughter too.”
The concept of Saturday candy dates back to the 1950s.
Swedish medical authorities began to recommend sweets as a treatment once a week, to try to limit the increase in caries cases as the country became richer, says Sofi Tegsveden Deveaux, author and lecturer on culture and values. Swedes.
Swedes’ tendency to “put great trust in the state” encouraged them to follow and stick to the advice to limit sweets to Saturdays, he says, and this has developed into the beloved family activity that exists today.
“Children like it, and children need some good things for themselves,” says Hui Jiang, 34, who moved to Sweden from China a decade ago and has embraced the tradition of his children, who are starting to jump. of joy at the moment Saturday candy is mentioned.
Disclaimer: This article was generated from streams and is not edited by our team.