Last Saturday, it was Christening day for L-G's dear little grandson. The service was lovely, the church beautiful and the star of the show behaved himself so well. Viggo dressed in his sweet little outfit stole the show, which is just as it ought to be.

We travelled from Oxelösund up to the northern suburbs of Stockholm on a bitterly cold but sunny Saturday, to Eds kyrka, situated on the shores of Edssjön.




This beautiful church is the oldest one in the area and parts of it date back to medieval times, having been built around 1100. It was consecrated to St Olof (who we call St Olaf in English).




It is built of local granite and then covered with plaster. The interior walls have been painted by a quite well known medieval painter called (rather appropriately) "Albert the Painter". While worn in places, the paintings seem to be holding up very well, considering their age and they combined with the beautiful stained glass windows to give the church a lovely peaceful and elegant atmosphere.




This was the first Christening service I have attended in a Swedish church, so I was interested in seeing how it compared to the services I am used to in Australia. I actually found it to be very similar and as you can see, with a familiar looking baptismal font and the Paschal candle, it could be anywhere in the Christian world.




We began by welcoming the baby, his parents and his godparents to the church. The priest who conducted the ceremony was outstanding. He struck the perfect balance between it being a religious service and a gathering of family and friends to admire the baby. Viggo is the first grandchild on both sides of the family, so he is in a very special position and absolutely doted on by a legion of grandparents, aunts and uncles.




Here he is looking around quietly, being held by mum with his godmother standing next to them. And because this is an equal opportunity blog, we ought to have a shot of him being held by dad and chatting to his godfather :)

I asked Lars-Göran about the godfather and he tells me that he is one of his son's childhood friends. He can remember him as a little boy and found it amazing to think of him now as grown up and prepared to take on the responsibility of being a godparent.




Then it was time for the main event and Viggo was held over the font. He was an absolute angel during the entire church ceremony. He looked very curiously at the priest as he poured the holy water over his forehead, but did not let out a tear or cry. Though we nearly shed a tear when we heard that one of the baby's names (Swedes usually have three names) was Edvin, who is Lars-Göran's father. How proud he would have been if he had been alive today to hear that his name will continue on in another generation. And I felt sad again that Evy had not lived long enough to see her great grandson born - she would have loved to have been with us all today. It struck me that this is the first family gathering without her, though I'm certain she was with us in spirit.

I noted that the same familiar Bible verse from Matthew 28:19 was used as the priest poured the water, though the Swedish ceremony had a different feel to it. It was less formal and liturgical than a Catholic christening ceremony and somehow better suited to a baby.




You can see this when you look at how the priest holds the baby aloft so we can all rejoice that he is now baptised. I was sitting with my sister-in-law and I asked her if there was any significance or meaning behind the green ribbon Viggo wore on his robe. I explained that we tended to have all white outfits and I was simply curious. She said that there was no special reason, but that people sometimes chose pink or blue ribbons to brighten the outfit and that not all babies wore white either. She pointed to her 22 year old son sitting next to her and said that he wore a little sailor suit for his christening. He looked at her, obviously appalled and said "Do I understand you correctly? You dressed me as Donald Duck for my christening?" We laughed - I guess that is one way to look at it.




The priest then invited any members of the gathering to come forward and take pictures. And there was a stampede of the 80 or so relatives and friends to the front of the church and like a scramble of mad paparazzi, the flashes lit up the church as everyone vied for their memory of the day. and like the little trooper he is, Viggo took it all in his stride.




Once order had been restored, Emilie's mum came forward and read a moving speech from Nelson Mandela on the nature of spirituality and humanity. The priest followed this up with a brief homily, where he urged us all to love and watch over little Viggo and cherish him not for what he does, but simply because he is himself.




He was also presented with his baptismal candle, lit as it the custom from the Paschal candle. This proved to be a big hit and really piqued his interest as he stared at it and reached out towards the light. My favourite moments in the whole ceremony were when I caught glimpses of the parents looking at their dear little son. There is no mistaking their great love for him and I found that very touching.




Above, you can glimpse mum looking tenderly at him, though just like a typical kid, he is ignoring her in favour of the candle. And below is his dad with the same love in his eyes. And Viggo still fixated on the candle. It was wonderful for Lars-Göran to recall his son as a baby and look at him standing there as a grown man, embarking on his journey as a parent. And for me, I thought back to that brash, cheeky nineteen year old boy I met for the first time nearly eight years ago and pondered the road he had taken since then to bring him here today.




What memories I will cherish of this perfect day. And how happy I am to have been part of this milestone in little Viggo's life.