Sommar Stängt



Translation: Summer closed July 1 - 31. Open again as usual on Monday August 1. You are welcome to come back then. Have a Nice summer!

  

Translation: Closed for Vacation. Come back August 15.



Translation: We are now closed for vacation and open again Monday August 15 at 10am. Have a nice summer and you are welcome to come back to us then!

Translation: Closed for vacation. Opening times only by appointment. Come back August 15. We wish all our customers a real nice summer!

Translation: Closed for Summer. Now, we take vacation and ready ourselves before Fall. We come back August 8. Nice summer! Wishes, The Staff.

Last summer, I was enthusiastic to explore Stockholm's neighborhoods and shops. But so many times, I was confronted by signs like these above and they always said the same thing--  Sommar Stängt!  Essentially, "closed for summer vacation."

Still now, whenever I see these signs, the intro from Beethoven's 5th Symphony pops into my head punctuated by Seinfeld's Soup Nazi yelling, 'No soup for you!'... No. Soup. For.YOU! 

CLOSED...For the SUMMER?!? How is this possible? Don't businesses exist to provide goods or services to others and to make money so their owners can live? How can they be closed, and in some cases, closed until the FALL?!

Welcome to the concept of the Swedish summer vacation.

Most Swedes have 5-6 weeks of vacation and many take 3-4 of those weeks during the month of July, reserving the rest for Jul (Christmas), and/or a solsemester (sun vacation) in January or February, and/or a skisemester (ski vacation) during the kids' sportlov (essentially, Spring Break) in March.

That's a lot of vacation to plan! I guess that's why so many Swedes' semester of choice is getting back to nature. With or without hot water or an indoor toilet, Swedes MUST commune with nature and everything green or nature-related, pluck jordgubbar (strawberries), plummon (plums), and svamp (mushrooms), freeze them or make homemade jam for winter consumption, and grow a bounty of vegetables in their gardens for their summer cottage dinner tables.  

So far I can manage 4 days of straight 'communing'. I'm sure that with more (ok, LOTS more) training, I'll be qualified to enter the ranks of the natives in a few years.

Believe it or not, Business still goes on. A little delayed, but it still goes on. After all, if 2/3 of the company are out what can anyone do but wait until they come back. As for our summer vacation, we've been in the U.S. too long so we've only managed to take off 8 days in a row so far out of habit and a belief that we need to be in and be seen in the office.

Wait! Didn't I just start a job in April? How can I be taking vacation already? 

Oh yeah, didn't I mention that I am entitled to vacation time immediately? (I just have to pay it back if things don't work out between the company and me) Not only that... he-he! I love this part... I hope you're sitting down--  I get paid a little EXTRA when I actually take my vacation days. A little pocket money, if you will, from Mamma och Pappa Sverige (Sweden). Tack!  (thank you)