A spring greeting
May Day has long been a day for “majar” on Rörö – an old expression meaning to go out into nature and welcome spring. When the light returns and the wind becomes milder, families pack a coffee basket and cakes and go out to the hills, or just down to Gule skära. There, they sit sheltered behind a cliff, drink coffee from a thermos and let the sun warm their cheeks. It is a simple tradition, but it means a lot – the calm after winter, the joy of the light and the camaraderie of just being outside together.
Att maja here isn’t a big celebration with singing and maypoles, but rather a quiet tribute to nature itself. On Rörö, it is often the wind, the birds, and the rhythm of the sea that provide the music. You see the first small flowers on Et, hear the eiders calling out on the water, and sense the scent of seaweed and fresh spring growth in the air.
Out here, Valborg and the traditional May bonfire aren’t celebrated the same way as in town. The people of Rörö have already lit their fires at Easter in their gardens, and all the branches and spruce have long since burned in the Easter bonfire. Spring is instead welcomed with a thermos of coffee, a walk, and a view of the sea – calm, reflective, and close to nature.
It is a day without grand words or formal speeches. Just people, the sea, the sky – and that quiet sense that life is slowly beginning again.