SOCIAL ACTIVITY. Participants both young and old met for a social activity in a snow-covered Stockholm on Sunday 3 December.
Sleds, pulkas, saucer sleds, bedrolls. Forwards, backwards, feetfirst and headfirst. There were many sledding techniques on display when members with and without families gathered to socialise in the winter landscape on the First Advent.
The day began in the morning and – much to the children’s delight – kicked off on a large toboggan hill. Laughter filled the air as the children zipped around in the swirling snow, sliding down the bank and occasionally falling off their various types of sleds. The children’s laughter grew when some of the adults joined in the games, after being taunted that they wouldn’t dare sled from the top of the hill.
After some time, the participants’ stomachs began to rumble and their wet hands started to freeze. A fire was lit for both warmth and grilling sausages, while hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies were set out. Impatient children took the opportunity to play catch with one another in the snow while waiting for the sausages to cook. When frozen hands had been warmed and hungry stomachs filled, marshmallows were grilled, while conversations flowed about everything and nothing.
After another hour of both intentional and unintentional tumbling in the snow, the sleds and other equipment were packed up and the participants headed to their cars for the journey home.
On the way out, the comrades encountered a fellow countryman whose car had ended up in a ditch, so naturally they helped haul the car back onto the road.
Several of the members made mention of the strikingly ethnically homogeneous composition of the people who go out on leisure activities like this, with only a few non-Whites being seen on the slopes that day. With this observation in mind, a very successful day in the spirit of folk community was concluded.
