Swedish Saturday #1: The law of Jante, or how swedish people promote equality.

Jantelagen, meaning Jante the name and lagen - the law, as the Swedes would say is a law that encourages a collective spirit and equality between individuals.

This law is not just in Sweden, but it's very well-known in all the Nordic countries.*

Even though the law itself was created by a Dano-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose, the law is a very important part of Swedish culture as a whole.

Jantelagen goes as follows:

You're not to think you are anything special.
You're not to think you are as good as we are.
You're not to think you are smarter than we are.
You're not to imagine yourself better than we are.
You're not to think you know more than we do.
You're not to think you are more important than we are.
You're not to think you are good at anything.
You're not to laugh at us.
You're not to think anyone cares about you.
You're not to think you can teach us anything.

Knowing this will hopefully make you understand the usual Nordic person just that much more.

And that'll be all from me for this week's Swedish Saturday, but I will leave you with one of my favourite videos about Sweden.

Have a good weekend.