How do Swedes Celebrate their national day?

Today was the Swedish national day and C and I wanted to figure out how it is celebrated by people in general. The question might seem weird but the fact is that the national day here was made into a public holiday pretty recently (since 2005). The Swedish national day is also also the Swedish flag day and until 1983 the 6th of June was only acknowledged as the flag day. It did not achieve the status of national day until 1983. The national day is celebrated in honor of King Gustav Vasa that was elected as king of Sweden 1523. So being a public holiday and how it is celebrated is still something that is fairly new.

Well me and C decided to take our bikes and head towards the royal place and see what was going on there. We found that the national day is celebrated with cinnamon buns anyway. Cinnamon buns with small Swedish flags were sold by the royal place.

On our way into the city we ran into this band called Mad lee riot that were playing on one Skånegatan. I don´t know anything about this band but a crowd had gathered around them and were enjoying the music so we stopped for a short while. The first song did not appeal to me very much but the second song was much better.

People were listening to the band and others were just laying on the grass in the park celebrating the national day by taking it easy and enjoying the nice and warm sunny weather.

Swedish flags were handed out and you could see people all round carrying their flags in their hands and waving with them.

We reached the royal place and by the dock opposite the palace these old fashioned stem boats. The one called Blidösund is one that we have actually been on a friends wedding some years ago.

The front yard of the Royal Palace had been decorated with blue and yellow flowers and shaped into crowns. Today the entrance into the palace was free and they had also opend up some parts that normally are not open to the public.

In the court yard this choir were singing beautifully. It must have been quite hot to stand there dressed in a dark suit considering it was about 25 C (80 F).

This is the cart with the cinnamon buns that I took a close up picture of. 20 Kr each for a cinnamon bun was the price. They just looked so good and so cute decorated with their tiny Swedish flags.

We also got to see the changing of the guard at the royal court yard. It was really nice. It is just one of those things that you practically never do unless you are showing Sweden or Stockholm to someone else.

We spotted some kind of sailing competition going on at another spot once we had left the Royal Palace. It just looked so beautiful with all of the white sails moving on the blue water.

There were lots of sailing boats both larger and smaller ones.

So this is how the national day could be celebrated and was celebrated around the Royal Palace but celebrations were taking place in other parts of Stockholm as well.It was really nice and the weather was just the best possible. I am glad that the celebration is picking up and new traditions are being established. Afterwords we headed out to my parents place and my mother had bought a cake to celebrate the day with us.