Ascension Day
Midimusic "O store Gud .." This year 2019 we celebrate Ascension Day at May 30
A Swedish tradition, on Ascension day, is to celebrate by having a dawn picnic and listening to the birds singing early in the morning. It may be fairly chilly that early, it may rain but if you are lucky you might even see a fantastic sunrise.
Some young people even spend the whole night out in the fresh air around a bonfire, grilling sausages and bread and drinking coffee or something else....
When you listen to the birds you are supposed to listen out for the cuckoo. Apparently he might be telling you something about the future.
The folklore had lots to tell about the first call of the cuckoo in the spring. In what quarter is he cuckooing? And how many times does he call? Coming from west is best, from east is comfort, from north is sorrow and from south is death...
And how many times he is calling can predict things, e.g. ask him how many years you will stay unmarried, and await his answer....
The cuckoo is a migrating bird, moving to the south, usually to Africa, at winter and coming back to Sweden in May for the whole summer.
At church we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoice in his promise;
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo,
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
Jesus Christ is accompaning us all days,
in light and in darkness,
in festival and in common,
even when we cannot feel that he is there.
The Lord is needing us in the struggle for his kingdom,
as well as when we are secure in our faith
or when we are in doubt.
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