The other side
In my last two episodes, I have talked about the silence and how the low of junk has affected us and our way of being, but there is an opposite side too, and that is the drunk Swedes.
But we Swedes have a very ambivalent relationship with alcohol. And before I give you some examples of drunk Swedes, let’s talk a little bit about our relationship with alcohol in general. For example, in Sweden, you can only buy alcohol that has a higher alcohol volume percent than 3.5% at Systembolaget or systemet as it’s called in general terms. And that is the state-owned liquor store. Of course, you can also buy your alcoholic beverage at restaurants, pubs, and bars. There is no strong alcohol sold at grocery stores and there are no privately owned liquor stores.
Alcohol is very expensive in Sweden, both to buy at Systemet as well as at the restaurant or a bar in Sweden. We are usually very restrictive about drinking if we are going to work the next day. So Sunday till Thursday is usually not a drinking day. You might have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner or after work, but you rarely see Swedes party or get drunk on the workday.
But on Friday and Saturday, on the other hand, especially if you’re going out with friends, you are almost expected to drink and to drink a lot, to get drunk. We even have a saying that it’s very common and it goes something like this in English. Of course, you can have fun without drinking, but who wants to take the chance?
Sweden also has very strict laws when it comes to drinking and driving 0.02 blood alcohol percent is a crime 0.03 % blood alcohol will lead to losing your driver’s license for a year. And if you get so drunk and get behind the wheel and you have a 1.0 % blood alcohol level, you go to jail.
If you are visiting Sweden
So a couple of tips. If you ever plan on visiting Sweden and you want to have a drink. You have to plan ahead. The only place you can buy alcoholic beverages over 3.5% is Systembolaget and they are only open Monday to Friday, nine to six, and Saturdays nine to three. Sundays closed. You can buy some lower-level alcoholic drinks, like light beer and cider at the grocery store, but they are all under 3.5% alcohol volume.
So plan ahead if you want to get to drink and I would recommend that you go to Systembolaget Monday through Thursday. I have worked at Systembolaget for many years back in Sweden and Fridays and Saturdays are mobbed with long lines. You also have to be prepared to show your ID some kind of identification, the drinking age in Sweden, or to buy something at Systembolaget are 20 years.
But I know since I worked at systemet, that the recommendation to ask for identification is if you look 25 or younger, and the thought behind this is accessibility age; if you are 20, it’s not too far fetched that you have friends that are younger than 20 and they could get accessibility to alcohol through you if we asked for ID at 20, that’s why it’s recommended to ask everybody buying alcohol for ID if you look like you are 25 or younger.
If you are buying one of those lower alcohol level drinks, like light beer, or cider at a grocery store, the age for buying those is 18 years. And the same, if you go to a restaurant or a bar or a club, the drinking age is 18 years. You should also know that in most municipals in Sweden, drinking in public is not allowed, you can be fined up to 500 Swedish crowns when I’m recording this around $60 if you get caught drinking alcohol in a public space.
The thinking behind the restrictions
As I said in Sweden, alcohol is very expensive. One reason for this is that about 60% of the price is actual taxes. Taxes are a way to keep alcohol consumption low. And of course, Sweden, as every other country had problems with alcohol-related diseases and addiction, it is estimated that around 4.4% of all Swedes have either alcohol-related diseases or an addiction to alcohol, the same number over here in the US, where alcohol is cheaper and easier to get your hands on is 6%.
There have been attempts to cancel the monopoly of Systembolaget and start selling alcohol through regular private-owned liquor stores, but that has never gone through because Systembolaget is another way of trying to keep alcohol consumption as low as possible.
So lets look at the drunk Swede
Let’s take a look at the drunken Swedes, of course, no matter what nationality you are if you drink too much, you behave in a different way, but what’s so special about the Swedes is the contrast between our normal behavior, the behavior that is very much colored by the law of Jante and the mentality among Swedes, the contrast between that behavior, the Monday to Thursday behavior and what happens when we drink is so big.
So let me give you a couple of examples.
The sober Swede is quiet and doesn’t want to draw attention to themselves.
The drunk Swede is loud. He or she shouts and chants.
The sober Swede will take no part in sensitive discussions about politics or other social issues.
The drunk Swede on the other hand has opinions about everything. But very often they say something that could be controversial and they guard themselves by adding I’m just joking. They are definitely not afraid of sharing their opinion on all types of topics.
The sober Swede stays away from the dance floor and dancing in general with one exception and that is midsummer when you see all Swedes, drunk or sober, making fools of themselves dancing like little frogs around the Midsummestång, but more on that when we talk about holidays, normally that sober Swede don’t dance.
The drunk Swede finds themselves in the center of the dance floor. Inventing dance moves that nobody has seen before
As I said, the sober Swede doesn’t talk very much.
The drunk sweet can usually don’t keep quiet. They talk, they have opinions. And even if they don’t have an opinion, they keep on talking.
The sober Swede usually dresses very proper and quite muted to blend in.
The drunk Swede has a tendency to remove their clothes one layer at a time, especially during the warmer summer months.
So when a Swede starts to drink, they very often forget everything about the law of Jante and their normal behavior as quiet and not drawing attention to them. They let loose in a way that does the most of drawing attention to them.
The day after or the concept of fylleångest
And this usually leads to the day after when many Swedes feel really anxious when they are hangover.
We even had a specific word for this in Swedish. It’s called Fylleångest – drunk anxiety.
So as you can see, we have a very ambivalent relationship to alcohol. On one hand, you don’t get drunk if you’re going to work the next day. On the other hand, when the weekend comes, especially if you go out with some friends, you are expected to drink and expected to get a little drunk.
When you are out with your friends and start drinking the normally so silent Swede gets very talkative. They get loud, opinionated, and draw a lot of attention to themselves. This in turn leads to the next day when the law of Jante hits them on the head, like Thor’s hammer Mjölner and not only give the hangover Swede a terrible headache we are filled with anxiety, or as we say fylleångest.
Even though we have this very strange relationship with alcohol in Swedish, there are more than 30 different words describing being drunk in different stages.
Drinking songs or snapsvisor
We also have a very peculiar habit, especially when it’s holidays and we share a meal together, to sing songs, especially if we are having, for example, herring, which is very common and we are drinking snaps, which is like a little shot of alcohol, usually Aquavit but also vodka or something else strong. We singing these snapsvisor, and after singing we used the word skål, which means cheers. And as I talked about before Swedes don’t often look you straight in the eyes. It’s part of our way of being a little drawn back. But after singing your snaps visa, you lift your glass and you look everybody in the eyes and say skål before you drink.
Even I don’t understand
I can’t say that I hope that you understand the drunken Swede a little bit better today because I am actually having a hard time understanding myself. If you are interested in me sharing some snapsvisor (even though I am no singer) leave a comment below and we will see what can be done.
But I can say that I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did so that you will share it with someone you think would get something out of it until next time, as we say, in Sweden, Hej då
