Kräftskiva or crayfish party

Crayfish party (Image from Sweden.se)

The origins of Kräftskiva are linked to the end of the traditional Swedish annual ban on fishing for crustaceans between 1st of November and the first Wednesday in August. This ban was abolished in 1994 but that is not enough reason for the Swedes to cancel a good party, so the celebration goes on.

It takes place at the end of summer and it helps bridge the long and calm months between midsummer and Christmas. Everyone gathers under white tents, to eat crayfish as part of the smorgasbord, accompanied by plenty of snaps. All this is done while wearing funny cone shaped hats! (haven’t figured out this part of the tradition yet!)

Be prepared to work hard for your food! There will be plenty of bowls food of crayfish but it will not be peeled. You’re going to have to do plenty of manual work to get to your food! You will need to peel your crayfish, remove the intestines and then suck the juices of your kräftor before eating it.

Keep plenty of napkins handy to clean your hands and drink snaps in between crayfish peeling. Swedes do the same, you will see. The day after a kräftskiva, Swedes tend to suffer from stomach ache, but instead of blaming the snaps they drank, they say “jag tål inte kräftor”, “I ‘react’ to crayfish”