Trettondedag jul

Here we celebrate the Thirteenth Day of Christmas (Epiphany) instead of Twelfth Night, and there is of course a rich and richly documented set of folk traditions. We’d learned about some of these in our class about Jul traditions with Gunnar Ahlbäck, but I didn’t know I would be getting to see a real-live version. Gun-Britt and Lasse put together a great free performance (an annual event), of which the first segment is a sort of slideshow/lecture with illustrative songs and old photos, and the second is a Star Play amalgamating features from several of the versions they’d documented. The play featured its usual cast of characters — King Herod, the wise men, some shepherds, a Jul goat — and some songs and dances. I thought it was fun, and the rest of the multigenerational audience all seemed to be enjoying themselves as well.