A Swedish Smorgasbord! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Scandinavia

The term dates from the 18th century. Scandinavia is an historical, cultural, and linguistic area in Northern Europe, generally comprised of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The peninsula which Sweden and Norway share is the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish languages are part of a dialect continuum of Scandinavian languages, which is to say they are all rather mutually intelligible -- conveniently.

Sometimes Iceland and Finland are considered part of Scandinavia in anglophonic writing because of their proximity and history, but when including these countries the better term would be "Nordic countries", which also encompasses the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

The Balkans comprise the southern European nations of Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania, and some sources include Slovenia, Eastern Thrace (the European part of Turkey), and Moldova -- though there is no universal agreement. Balochistan is a desert region covering the Iranian plateau and parts of southwestern Afghanistan. The Greater Antilles consist of the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.

Answer: Constitutional monarchy

To be most precise, Sweden is a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. The parliament, or Riksdag, passes and repeals laws and amends the constitution. Sweden has several political parties represented proportionally in the unicameral Riksdag, whose Speaker has the authority to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister, as head of the government (or 'administration' in U.S. English), exercises both executive and legislative powers with the help of a cabinet of nearly two dozen ministers (whom the PM appoints).

The judiciary in Sweden is independent of these bodies, and follows neither English common law (and its emphasis on legal precedence) nor the French Napoleonic code, though it draws from these traditions and others. And with all this democracy, there sits on the throne a monarch, a largely symbolic head of state since 1917.

Answer: Nyckelharpa

The word 'nyckelharpa' literally means "key harp", and the stringed instrument dates from the 15th century. Like a violin, the nyckelharpa is played with bow, but the musician fingers keys attached to pins, called tangents, that alter the strings' pitch. It resembles the hurdy-gurdy somewhat, but it's quite a bit longer, whilst the hurdy-gurdy uses a wheel (turned by a crank) rather than a bow.

The roots revival of 1960s reinvigorated the popularity of this instrument in Sweden. You can even study it at Royal College of Music in Stockholm (Kungliga Musikhögskolan).

Answer: O-Zone

ABBA, consisting of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and Benny Andersson, was the best-known pop act from Sweden. Their heyday was the 1970s through the early 1980s. Europe's breakout hit was 'The Final Countdown' (1986). Ace of Base was a popular 1990s group, also composed of two men and two women, and often compared to ABBA, although they never quite achieved the earlier group's status.

O-Zone was a Romanian group active from 1999 to 2005. They made a big splash with "Dragostea din tei", also known as "Numa Numa", a favorite of downloaders and people who make videos of themselves lip-synching songs in languages they don't understand.

Answer: Lutheranism

Sweden was pagan until the 11th century, when it became Christianized. In the 16th century, The King of Sweden, Gustav I, saw the Protestant Reformation as an opportunity to seize Catholic Church properties, and in 1531 the state church became the Lutheran Church of Sweden. From 1860 to 1951, a Swede belonging to the Lutheran Church could leave the Church only to join another recognized Christian denomination.

In 2000, however, the Church was dis-established, and attendance plummeted.

Answer: St. Lucy's Day (Lucia)

St. Lucia or Lucy, the bringer of light, is one of the few saints whose day is observed in Lutheran Sweden. Lucia (c.283-304) was martyred during the Diocletian persecution after her fiancé denounced her to the governor of Syracuse, Sicily. When the guards could not burn her, they took out her eyes; hence she is the patroness of the blind.

On St. Lucy's Day, 13 December, are processions with both boys and girls (although traditionally it was only girls). An appointed Lucia in every city and region visits malls, nursing homes, and churches, and she hands out ginger cookies as she sings. A national Lucia is also elected. The night before St. Lucy's Day is also a time for dinner parties and other celebrations.

Answer: True

In neither World War I nor II did Sweden fight; rather, it maintained an armed neutrality. In fact, after the 1814 campaign against Norway, Sweden did not participate in any armed conflict directly, although some Swedish troops were part of the UN peacekeeping force in Bosnia in the 1990s and the War of Afghanistan in 2001. In World War II, Sweden did allow the German army to use Swedish railroads, but the country also became a sanctuary for Jewish refugees.

This longtime peace helped give Sweden a remarkable standard of living in the late 20th and early 21st centuries under a hybrid of capitalist mechanisms and democratic-socialist benefits.

Answer: Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician and astronomer whose laws of planetary motion were a foundation for Sir Isaac Newton's theory of gravity.

Anders Celsius was an astronomer who proposed the eponymous temperature scale. Carl or Carolus Linnaeus designed the system of taxonomy still in use today in zoology and botany, though modified with knowledge of genetics. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes (in part because he didn't want to be remembered for creating an instrument of destruction).

Other notable Swedish figures:
Tycho Brahe, astronomer born in 1546 in Scania (then a part of Denmark but part of Sweden in the third millenium). His observations were fundamental to Kepler's work.
Lars Magnus Ericsson, inventor involved in telephony
Jonas Wenström, co-inventor of the three-phase electrical system along with Serbian Nikola Tesla
Erik Wallenberg, inventor of the Tetra Pak aseptic storage containers

Answer: 1958

Brazil won the championship by beating Sweden 5-2 in the final. France was third, and West Germany fourth. This marked the only year in the 20th century that Sweden hosted the FIFA World Cup.

Answer: Whitefish soaked in lye

The Swedes take air-dried whitefish and soak it in lye, hence "lye fish" or lutfisk. They may drink it with Akvavit, a popular distilled spirit flavored with caraway or dill. If you don't like lutfisk you could try surströmming, or fermented herring, often served in a can that bulges as the fermentation process continues. Yum.