Hello everyone – hej allihopa!

In Sweden, winter and festive is season is in full action. This Sunday, November 27th, we will be celebrating the first Advent Sunday, and with it the ban on Christmas songs will officially be lifted. Time to decorate houses, start drinking hot glögg (Swedish mulled wine), and cozy up!

Along with the festivities, this season brings lots of long nights and darkness. Swedes try to lift the spirits up by incorporating as much light as possible whether in the house or outside.

My town Norrköping takes it a step further and each year we host the Light Festival. Festival lasts between November and early January, which is the darkest period in Sweden, and it truly lights up the entire town. The festival started as a collaboration between Norrköping and Amsterdam Light Festival in 2015. Since 2019 Norrköping municipality has taken full charge of the festival and it involves and encourages local artists to contribute to annual installations.

To celebrate the beginning of Light Festival, my friends and I decided to go on a walk around the city and visit every exhibition. Even though the evenings are especially cold nowadays, this still was a wonderful way to spend time together, see some familiar installations and couple of new ones.

We started the walk at Skvaller Torget, which is right outside the University (and the place translates to “gossip square). From there we walked by couple of installations, such as the Circle of Life and Henry the Moose

Circle of Life

Henry the Moose

Going forward, we headed to one of the dormitories in town, Grippen. This area has several fun installations, such as NKPG Squared

Ring of Light

Lastly, we headed towards the central-station, which hosts I Love Norrköping installation.

And close by, in front of the town hall, we finished the walk with a family of snowman and Santa’s village: Winter Square

At one glance, the Light Festival looks just a fun way to spend darker days, but at the heart of it, each installation is designed to raise awareness or to bring attention to important topics, such as necessity to coexist and find common grounds with others, to remember town’s history and preserve it, to find love and empathy for those who are struggling or need help. If you want to read more about it, you can find information here.

With everything it represents, the Light Festival is one of my favorite parts of Norrköping and I am so excited that it is back in town for another year!

Until next time – Gvantsa

____________________________________________________________

Why not continue the conversation with us?

Start with checking out:

Our programmes, the application process, webinars, and our Instagram and Facebook account.  

Still left wanting more? Book an appointment with our recruitment coordinator at infocenter@liu.se.

Pin
Comments are disabled for this post