One of the things that initially confused me when I moved to Sweden was how Easter is celebrated here. While my experience was always that it is a sombre holiday (punctuated by hunting for foil covered chocolate eggs on Sunday morning), here the Saturday of Easter weekend is celebrated with children dressing up as witches to go door-to-door to collect candy and huge bonfires. Both the candy and the bonfires are different sides of the same coin, strategies for dealing with witches. The candy is to appease them. The bonfires are to scare them away. Here in Hunnebostrand, every year there is a huge community bonfire on the island in the harbour. A good chunk of Saturday is spent building up the pile of wood with everything from branches to old wooden furniture. To give some idea of the scale, this particular fire, from an Easter past, had a king size bed mattress in the middle vertically that you couldn't even see when the fire was initially lit. This photo was taken once it had died down a bit.
Bonfires sound good to me. You've really captured the heat in this shot--feels like it's emanating from the screen. Lunamania @ April 14, 2009
What an interesting way to celebrate Easter. Not something I've heard of before.
Great shot. The silhouette lends a sense of the scale of the image. Laurie @ April 14, 2009
How things can be so different between neighbours. Never heard of this candy&bonfire story here in Norway.
Lovely composition btw, with the diagonal and dark lower half! Asgardr @ April 14, 2009
what a story!
I like how captured the flames. They actually look like they are moving.
I wonder if there is a need for all the dark space in the bottom. When I crop it with my hand, there is a nice Z like shape that comes out - flames, diagonal, bottom of picture. Something to think about... sophie @ April 18, 2009
Notes
One of the things that initially confused me when I moved to Sweden was how Easter is celebrated here. While my experience was always that it is a sombre holiday (punctuated by hunting for foil covered chocolate eggs on Sunday morning), here the Saturday of Easter weekend is celebrated with children dressing up as witches to go door-to-door to collect candy and huge bonfires. Both the candy and the bonfires are different sides of the same coin, strategies for dealing with witches. The candy is to appease them. The bonfires are to scare them away. Here in Hunnebostrand, every year there is a huge community bonfire on the island in the harbour. A good chunk of Saturday is spent building up the pile of wood with everything from branches to old wooden furniture. To give some idea of the scale, this particular fire, from an Easter past, had a king size bed mattress in the middle vertically that you couldn't even see when the fire was initially lit. This photo was taken once it had died down a bit.
EXIF
Comments
allmycke @ April 11, 2009
Jonas @ April 11, 2009
Krims@nline.be @ April 11, 2009
Pere Chuliá @ April 13, 2009
Regards,
Trudie
allmycke @ April 13, 2009
Lunamania @ April 14, 2009
Great shot. The silhouette lends a sense of the scale of the image.
Laurie @ April 14, 2009
Lovely composition btw, with the diagonal and dark lower half!
Asgardr @ April 14, 2009
I like how captured the flames. They actually look like they are moving.
I wonder if there is a need for all the dark space in the bottom. When I crop it with my hand, there is a nice Z like shape that comes out - flames, diagonal, bottom of picture. Something to think about...
sophie @ April 18, 2009
tom @ April 19, 2009
How the heck do you collect a bonfire? I know the Swedes are admired for their ingenuity, but THAT I've got to see. ;)
David Barry @ May 16, 2009
Thanks for visiting. I really appreciate your support and comments!