Sweden

__Personal Response__
The Swedish culture is concentrated on hospitality and happiness. Making guests comfortable and being curteous and polite is a big part of their life. Although my family kids around alot, we are much the same. Some surface culture of Swedish culture could be: unique architecture, general hospitality, the smorgasbord, or shaking hands when greeting. Some of the deeper culture of Swedish traditions include: maintaining eye contact while shaking hands, bringing a gift when invited over, always refer to host by their full title, younger people move to a first name basis quicker than the elderly, or the importance of personal space. One stereotype of the Swedish is that they are all blonde, blue eyed, and tall. While these are common aspects, they obviously dont apply to everyone. Another is that they live in igloos and there are polar bears everywhere. Yes, it is quite cold in Sweden, but they are just as developed as the US, and polar bears only live in the North Pole, so their not in Sweden.

__Language__
The official language of Sweden is Swedish and is spoken by most people living there. One of the minority languages is Saami, which is spoken in the northern region, and is actually Finnish. Also, there are a number of Romanies in Sweden that speak Romani. Influences on the Swedish language have come from German, Latin, and Danish.

__Religion__
Most of Swedes are Lutheran, making up 87% of the religious population. The other 13% is a mix of Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and Muslim. Traditional weddings take place in a church. Most kids are baptized at birth, about 70%, and the Church of Sweden carries out nearly all funerals.Over the past few decades the percent of Swedes attending church has dropped dramatically. In the last 35 years its dropped by 23%.

__Institution__
School starts very early for the Swedish. From age 1-5, all children are guaranteed a spot in daycare. When they turn 6, preschool begins. After this, it is mandatory that all kids attend school through ninth grade. After ninth they may choose to either continue with another 3 years, until 11 grade, or stop at 9. 63% of students remain throughout 11th grade. Beyond that is an optional 2-5 years of college, and then out into the real world.

__Holidays__
Like America, Sweden celebrates Christmas and Easter. But unlike us they have Advent and Lucia.

Advent
The 4 week period directly preceding Christmas in which a candle is lit every Sunday is know as Advent. This is a time for festive decorations and activities. More Swedes attend church on the first Sunday of Advent then any other day of the year. During the service they sing well know Yuletide hymns.

Lucia
Beggining on December 13, is an important holiday in Sweden. One girl from each household is chosen as a Lucia (Queen of Light) to carry out the tradition. The Lucia is dressed in a white gown and wears a crown that has candles in it. Followed by her attendants, also dressed in white, she bring things like coffe, ginger biscuits, and rolls. During this time all they children will sing tradition Lucia carrols.

__Food__
One of Swedens more well know cuisines is a 'smorgasbord'. This literaly means 'open sandwich table', but offers much more than that. On a traditional smorgasbord one might find herring, Swedish meatballs, salmon, pie, salad, eggs, bread, potatos, and so on. In older times this was an appetizer to the main course, but has come to be the main meal. Rarely does a guest request more after having tried all items on a smorgasbord. Other common and traditional foods include crayfish, pea soup, Pytt i panna (fried diced meat topped with potatos and onions), pastries, coffe, and Surströmming, which is salted Baltic Herring.

__Dress__
For a woman, customarial clothes were dresses, taght around the torso and open and loose around the legs, extending all the way to the ground. Loose sleeves that come out to the hands were part of the dress, and there may have been a small hood. For the men, a vest with either pants or knee length pants that tied off and tall socks were appropriate.

__Diffusion__
Many festive decorations in the Swedish household are not native to the country. The gingerbread house, for example, was brought to Europe by an Armenian monk. The concept of bringing the tree inside the house came from Germany. From an economical standpoint, many workers are employed by other countries. For example, the company my dad works for has outsourced to Sweden and established new offices there, as well has hire Swedish employees here in America.

__Physical Geography__
Because Swedens upper half is dominated by a huge expanse of snow covered forest, mose of its people live in the southern have, concentrated around the coasts. The cold weather there leaves most people in warm clothing, like thick sweaters and vests. Game like bandy have become popular because of the availabe ice.



==__​Sources__  == "Holiday Traditions of Sweden." //Traditions//. MAYACO, Web. 1 Jan. 2010. .

"Geography of Sweden." //How Stuff Works//. HowStuffWorks, Inc, Web. 1 Jan. 2010. . "Food and Drink." //Smorgasbord//. Kamerareportage, Web. 1 Jan. 2010. . Gan, Delice, and Leslie Jermyn. //Cultures of the World: Sweden//. Print.