Tradisjon

This article discusses the «B1åkulla» march in Visby, Gotland, Sweden. The event is arranged yearly on Maundy Thursday. Children and parents defy the winds, rain and snow of April to gather in the center of the small medieval town and march up and down the formerly busy street, hoping to get some of the coloured, candyfilled paper eggs distributed by the local merchants' association. The march is headed by a brass band, and most of the children, and some of their parents, are dressed up as påskkäringar, wearing old and outsized skirts and blouses, big scarves around their heads, their faces made up with red lipstick and black paint.The children are the heirs of the påskkäringar of the forties, fifties and sixties. Youngsters then dressed up as old women, begging for Easter eggs, bread and candies, walking around individually or in small groups. Although formerly widespread, the custom faded in the sixties and almost disappeared.The march was initiated by merchants in Visby in 1973 and became an immediate success. About one thousand children, one-fourth of all the children on the island, participated together with their parents, making the march one of the major events of the year.To find the factors that contributed to the success of the event, I turn to the perspectives of the merchants, the children and the parents. The merchants have obvious commercial interests; the children disguise themselves and get free candy; the parents remember the old days when the busy street was the natural meeting place and they walked around as påskkäringar themselves.From the researcher's perspective, I discuss the event in terms of effectivization, rationalization and institutionalization of an old custom, then turning to Hobsbawm's notion of «traditionalization». These concepts illuminate the historical and social background against which the actions of the performers may be analyzed. The last part of the paper discusses the concepts of «revitalization» and «folklorism». I maintain that these theoretical concepts must be rejected on the grounds that they are heavily biased by objectivist notions of «authenticity» and «false consciousness.» I find that, however simple and obvious the objectives of the actors may seem, only they can explain why so many children and parents in Visby find it worthwhile to walk the streets of Visby together on a Thursday afternoon in April.