After just a short break to google the info in Wikipedia (after all I’ve only just found out!), I discovered that today is also called svenska flaggans dag which translates as Flag’s Day. And it might just be a coincidence but in Argentina we also celebrate our national Flag Day in June (20th June in case you’re wondering). It just goes to show how two countries which couldn’t be further apart in the map and apparently very different have a lot of things in common.
This day in Sweden marks the foundation of modern Sweden (the date honours the election of King Gustav Vasa in 1523).
According to the mythology, the Swedish 12th century king Eric the Holy saw a yellow cross in the sky as he landed in Finland during the First Swedish Crusade in 1157. Seeing this as a sign from God he adopted the yellow cross against a blue background as his banner.
Apparently, in Sweden it is common to hung flags out on that day. Well, in that respect we do differ for in Argentina we’d rather be hanged rather than hung the flags in our balconies (we reserve that honour only for momentous occasions such as a victory in a football match).