Costumes, ghosts, and wild parties. No, it’s not a description of Halloween but rather Epiphany celebrations in the old days. Today, Trettondagen or Epiphany in English, is a fairly tame holiday in Sweden, but it wasn’t always like that – in the old days, January 6th was celebrated with great hullabaloo. Still a holiday in Sweden most people also take the previous day, the Twelfth Night (Trettondagsafton) off from work.

“That was the day when the Three Wise men visited baby Jesus in Bethlehem and gave their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh,” says Lena Kättström Höök, superintendent at Nordiska museet. According to Swedish folklore, the dead came visiting from their graves for Christmas and had to return on the 6th of January. Most of these traditions went to their graves during the 19th century, too. Today the only one remaining is, perhaps, the so-called “julgransplundring” (a children’s party at which the Christmas tree was stripped of its decorations, which in the old days consisted of apples, candy and other edibles).
“But on the island of Möja, it’s just like old times. They sing mediaeval songs and walk around with a great, shining star,” Kättström Höök explains.
Möja is an island in the Stockholm archipelago, only accessible by boat Möja tourist information (in Swedish)