Photos from Alla Helgons Dag

On the first Saturday in November, Swedes observe All Saints Day. It’s much like Memorial Day in the U.S., a day of remembrance. Most families take the time to visit their loved ones’ graves on Friday or Saturday, leaving a few 50-hour candles instead of a wreath or flowers.

The sun sets before 4:00 p.m. that weekend, so even the early visitors can appreciate the view of the candles glowing in the darkness. Miranda and I decided to work all day and night that Saturday, so on 'Alla Helgons Dag' we left the apartment around 11:00 at night to visit Skogskyrkogården (the forest cemetery). The cemetery is only two miles from our apartment, and even though it was freezing outside, the 90-minute walk through the cemetery was well worth the time. You can’t imagine just how beautiful it was, walking at midnight on an unlit gravel path, cutting straight through a forest of 100-foot tall pine trees. The lower branches and all the underbrush had been cleared, and all you could see in any direction was rows of tombstones among the trees, illuminated in the candlelight yet still managing to disappear into the darkness. Certain areas of the cemetery are reserved for the scattering of ashes, and in these areas there were so many candles that you’d swear there was a bonfire in the distance. Other areas of the cemetery were older, which was obvious from the fact that only one out of ten tombstones had a candle, as compared to seven out of ten in other areas of the cemetery.

We weren’t the only people out there with a camera that night, but we were the only people trying to capture the moment on a basic digital camera without a decent night setting or a tripod. We hope the pictures can give you a basic idea of what I’m trying to describe.