Every year on 30 April is valborgsmässoafton in Sweden. This day is called the "Bonfire Festival" by many local Chinese, because the Swedes will celebrate the arrival of spring by lighting a huge bonfire on the night of The Wolfugis. Legend has it that the practice began in the 18th century. April 30 is also the birthday of the current King of Sweden, Karl XVI Gustav.
Because of the pandemic, Sweden has cancelled the Bonfire Festival celebrations for two consecutive years in 2020 and 2021, and the king has not held birthday celebrations as is customary. Remember in 2020, in order to prevent young people from gathering in the park to celebrate carnival during the Bonfire Festival, the university town of Lund in southern Sweden, and one of the craziest cities to celebrate the Bonfire Festival every year, decided to fertilize the lawn of the city park on the eve of the Bonfire Festival, dropping more than 1 ton of chicken manure (who said Sweden does not fight the epidemic?). Small Swedish towns are a surprise trick to prevent park crowds! ）。
Today, the temporary Pandemic Law, which allows the Swedish government to limit the number of people gathered, has been lifted (life expectancy in Sweden has returned to pre-pandemic levels, and all entry restrictions will be lifted from April 1!). People who had already been suffocated came out to light a fire and revelry, hoping to burn away all the obscurity and unpleasantness of the past two years. The King of Sweden, who celebrated his 76th birthday this year, after receiving three doses of vaccines and being infected with the new crown once (Sweden added more than 10,000 new cases every day, and the king and queen were both diagnosed), also dared to come out without wearing a mask to accept the people's birthday wishes for him.
In many parts of Sweden, record attendance at this year's Bonfire Festival celebrations broke records. The number of people in the castle park in uppsala, the university town of uppsala north of Stockholm, even exceeds 80,000 people, and the number of people gathered in Lund City Park exceeds 30,000. Christer Nordström, a police officer who has been on duty at Bonfire Festival in Uppsala for 47 consecutive years, said he had never seen so many people gather to celebrate. The Swedish media therefore called this year's Bonfire Festival "Supervalborg". No one cares that in South Africa, where Aumechjong started, the fifth wave of the epidemic caused by the new variants of Aomi kerong, BA.4 and BA.5, has recently been quietly rising.
Uppsala Castle Park
Lund City Park
Knights Island, Stockholm