Vad Är Sportlov?

Students naturally look forward to every break in the school year, no matter how short or long. At Sitka High, we have a two week long winter break, and a week long spring break. Besides the occasional small holiday that may get us a three day weekend, or a teacher in-service day, those are about the only planned breaks we can look forward to. The only advantage, in my opinion, to having so few breaks during the school year is the longer summer breaks. In Sweden, things are done very differently. Along with the expected winter break and spring break, they also have a week long break during the fall called höstlov, and a week long break between the winter and spring break called sportlov. This gives them four much needed, and appreciated breaks during the year. This past week was my sportlov and I spent it up in Northern Sweden with my host family skiing. You may be wondering why Swedes have so many more school breaks, so I’m going to explain the origins of sportlov, and how it’s used today. Back after WWII, countries were desperate to find ways to conserve money and energy. Heating schools was expensive and school councils were told to find ways to drastically decrease the costs. That’s when sportlov came in. Annually, during the coldest weeks of the year, schools closed for one week so they wouldn’t need to pay for heating. Students needed something worthwhile to do during their week off, so many outdoor activities were planned for them. These were typically team sports and activities that made the students spend time outdoors. For families, this was the perfect time to grab all the kids and head to the slopes for skiing. Sportlov was an obvious success with few complaints. Kids and teachers got a break from school, parents didn’t have to find ways to keep their children busy because of the provided activities, and it was even shown that during that time of year, illnesses spread by children were much less active. That’s why for the past 70 something years, Sweden has had an extra break during the school year. In present day Sweden, sportlov is split into a few different weeks to prevent overcrowding at ski resorts and the like. Usually in the southern districts, they get their weeks around the seventh or eighth week of the year and the further North regions have their breaks between the ninth and tenth weeks. My break was from the fourteenth of February to the twenty fourth, in week eight. During the week, my host family made the twelve hour drive up to Vemdälen Sweden and spent six days skiing. We had a blast skiing, and I found that I got much better after my previous week long skiing trip in December. Although there was plenty of space on the slopes, my host sister and I opted to spend a majority of our time racing through the woods, and looking for the untouched patches of snow. At first it was terrifying speeding single-file around the trees and over the numerous jumps and dips, but after a few days, it came naturally. It was worth occasionally running into trees to have a few seconds of gliding on what felt like clouds. I actually only fell about twice in the woods, and only hit one tree. The tree that I hit was small and just happened to break in half on contact with my knees, but I would without a doubt do it again, despite the bruises gained while doing so. After our six days of skiing, we had to once again sit for an unbearably long amount of time in the car while driving home. This time it was slightly better because we were all exhausted from skiing so sitting all day was easier. Nevertheless, I still looked a little strange when doing squats and lunges and sprinting from one side of the rest stop to the other at each stop, a tradition that my own mother taught me. When sitting for that long, I’m always desperate for at least a little physical activity, and doing exercises in parking lots helps slightly. We arrived home Saturday night, just in time to watch Melodifestivalen, a Swedish singing competition that decides who gets to go and compete in the Eurovision Song Contest, a Europe-wide singing competition held annually. After that, I enjoyed the rest of my weekend with my host family and nursing my incredibly sore legs.

Words of the Week

Lov- Holiday Vecka- Week Årligen- Annually

#skiing #vacation #TheMoreYouKnow