Easter Witches Return, 1939–45
The above card by Maja Synnergren, posted in Stockholm on 10 April 1939, is not of a sexy witch, in fact she is not a witch of any description—although she is at least an example of the very rare not-child and not-hag that I mentioned in my last post. She is here because of what she is doing: she is selling Easter eggs, balloons and Easter witches to a couple of very cute children.
I wish I could say that I had seen a sexy Easter witch doll, but I haven’t. So the chances are that this very pretty street vendor is not even selling sexy witches, she is probably selling hag-witches. Oh well. I have included her here, though, to get you in mood for the cards below and to give you a bit of social context.
And, on this front, I should also note that all of these Easter Witch postcards date from the late 30s and early 40s: that is during the lead-up to WW2, the war itself, and the immediate post-war period. Considering what was going on in Europe, they are surprisingly bright and cheery cards.
Remember, though, Sweden remained neutral during WW2: it did not participate in the war against Germany and was not attacked (though, early part of the war, Sweden and Britain supported Finland against the Soviets; the Fins turned to Germany for help when British support waned. When Finnish/Nazi success enabled them to occupy Soviet territory, Britain declared war against Finland). Norway, however, was occupied by the Germans for most of the war. (For more on this see the Wikipedia entries on Sweden, Finland and Norway during WW2).
And so, now it is time for some real pretty-witches! The first three below I have posted before, but I have two copies of the first card now, one of which has a six-line poem on the verso.
Jason, over at The Wild Hunt, has just done a brief post on Easter Witches (here), which mentions my previous post on the subject (thanks Jason). He quotes a paragraph from Time Magazine about “odd, intensely national” Easter traditions, and he links to a charming post by Ladyfi on the subject (see here).
It is the feedback to Jason’s post, however, will probably interested you most. Cipolla mentions Sweden’s “witches’ mountain” (Blåkulla)—their answer to Germany’s Brocken Mountain—as the destination for Swedish witches. This mountain is an island off the coast in southern Sweden: its official name is “Blå jungfrun” (blue maiden). Other feedback on Jason’s post, by Elysia, provides a link to a recent article by Elizabeth Dacey-Fondelius, Easter—when Sweden’s witches come out to play, in the English-language Swedish online news service, The Local. Definitely worth a read.
10 April 2009 at 3:23 PM
Your comment about the very rare, “not child and not hag” woman can be
further illuminated by the fact she appears to be a Gypsy. Gypsies were well known to sell goods and were known to have occult powers. So this would definitely qualify as a witch pic.
11 April 2009 at 1:54 PM
Wonderful blog, I’m glad I found you!
1 December 2011 at 11:09 AM
Very nice postcards! I´m Swedish and I would like to add that the women depicted are not “Gypsies”. Instead, their outfits (particulary on the first and the fourth card) reflect the way children used to dress when they dressed up as witches for easter, often covering their hair with shawls, wearing long skirts and aprons. The outfits are supposed to remind one of the way peasant women dressed in the 19th century.