Monday, August 25, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

The Amish: A screen-free life with a focus on nature

The Amish fled persecution in Europe and found peace in America. After almost 200 years on the new continent, they are a rapidly growing group of people who have built their distinctive culture on a simple life away from the mass media noise of modern society. Instead, they put family and closeness to nature first - alongside God.

Published 9 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Some of the members of an Amish community in Blacksburg, Virginia.
5 minute read

This article was originally published on April 16, 2023.


The Amish have their origins in Anabaptism, or the so-called ‘Anabaptist movement’. Jacob Amman was part of the Mennonites in Europe who practiced a more literal interpretation of the Bible, including baptizing adults instead of children. Anabaptism emerged in the 16th century at a time when adult baptism was forbidden in Europe, which in turn led to persecution and even death for the Mennonites.

In the 17th century, Amman believed that the Mennonites had become too secular and created a separate movement named after him – the Amish. Among other things, Amman believed that communion should be held twice a year instead of once and suggested that men should wash each other’s feet to show obedience to Christ. Amman also believed that men should not shave their beards and that women should not wear dresses dictated by fashion. In the 1730s, the first group of Amish arrived in America to escape persecution in Europe and were promised religious freedom. In the 19th century, more Amish arrived and today Europe is virtually devoid of the group. However, smaller groups of Mennonites still exist in Europe.

Today, most Amish live in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana in the United States, but also in parts of Canada. There are several different Amish communities, and the way of life can differ depending on the community, with some being more conservative than others. In 2022, it was estimated that there were around 367,000 Amish in the US and nearly 6,000 in Canada, according to the academic website Amish Studies. There are also a few hundred Amish in South America. This appears to be a significant increase from 2018 alone, when the total Amish population was estimated at 330,000 individuals.

The group still speaks so-called Pennsylvanian, which is a kind of old-fashioned German. However, they are learning English in order to interact with the rest of the community.

Living as an Amish

One way to summarize Amish life is simplicity and harmony with nature. Part of their belief is that God wants people to respect nature and work closely with it, which they do. For one Amish family in Blacksburg, Virginia, as documented by RussianPlus, farming is a big part of everyday life and they are largely self-sufficient. Much of the time is spent growing, harvesting and caring for the animals. The family’s cow gives about 11 liters of milk per day and is milked by hand. The milk is drunk or used fresh and is therefore not pasteurized before drinking it.

– Pasteurized milk is not tasty, it’s like colored water, says one of the men in the family, laughing.

Laughter and smiles are particularly noticeable in this family, and the children’s eyes shine with mischief and play. Schooling takes place in the home but can be mixed at different ages, although it does not go beyond the eighth grade. As the children get older, they are encouraged to travel to see parts of the rest of the world so that they can make a mature decision about whether or not to live as Amish.

The family gathers to milk their cow by hand. Photo: facsimile/Youtube

The Amish describe God as the “ultimate doctor”, but modern medicine can still be used if necessary. However, you won’t find an Amish person seeking help for minor ailments, so more natural remedies such as vitamins, homeopathic remedies, health foods and chiropractors are used.

Clothing is simple and in the style of what was generally worn in the 18th century. Money is earned by selling vegetables and other items to the surrounding community. Tourism has also benefited the Amish as many people are drawn to the opportunity to see how they live and learn. The family in Blacksburg works on building furniture for sale and the women in the family also work in the small factory.

A common misconception is that the Amish do not use any kind of technology or other modernities. The more accurate view is that they are selective in their use and can use things that can benefit rather than harm. The Amish do not want to let technology run amok and become its slave, but rather seek ways to master it. For example, television, radio and computers – technologies that carry mass media – are not considered good for society. On the other hand, tools or household appliances can be used, but often batteries are used rather than pure electricity. Cars are usually not used, but rather the classic horse and carriage. The use of modern conveniences can also vary greatly between communities; for example, the small furniture factory in Blacksburg uses screwdrivers and other equipment to make work easier.

Family and faith

One of the core values of the Amish is family and community. They help and support each other, which is not only part of the lifestyle but also part of the very soul of their social life. This is hard to find in modern society where people often look past each other because they are constantly glued to screens. Although there are often more traditionally gendered roles in the home, women, for example, can be the breadwinners of the family and participate in decision-making in the household. However, the man is seen as the ‘spiritual leader of the home’ and the leaders in an Amish community are all men. These are called ‘servants’ in the local dialect and often consist of a bishop, two or three ministers and a deacon.

With the family in Blacksburg, Virginia, it is easy to see the connection they have with each other and that the family is about a common set of values where everyone is there for each other.

Children playing outside. Photo: facsimile/Youtube

An important aspect of the faith is the optional baptism at adulthood. Baptism is seen as a binding commitment to God and to live by the teachings of the Amish culture for the rest of one’s life. If you break that commitment and refuse to acknowledge your sins, you risk being excommunicated in the worst case scenario. However, you can always return – if you are willing to admit your sins and repent for them. However, excommunication only applies to those who have been baptized, so you cannot be excommunicated beforehand because you have not yet entered into a commitment with God.

In addition to baptism, communion is very important, a ceremony held every autumn and spring. It involves confessing one’s sins and remembering Christ’s death with wine and bread, then washing each other’s feet in song. During communion, it is also the only time that an offering is made with alms to the deacon.

There are no churches in the Amish culture, nor any grand altars or grand buildings. Instead, their religion emphasizes lifestyle and values such as humility, community, simplicity and submission to God’s will. Instead of churches, they hold services in each other’s homes every other Sunday. Over the course of the year, all members rotate and often there is a service in each member’s home about once a year, depending on the size of the community. On “free Sundays” people usually gather to read the Bible or they may travel to another district to attend a service.

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Surströmming – a fragrant tradition

Published 21 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Surströmming's stinking saga – from salt shortage to world fame!
4 minute read

The third Thursday in August traditionally marks the premiere for eating the Swedish – strongly fragrant – dish surströmming. The fermented fish, which is both hated and loved by Swedes, has a long tradition – particularly in Norrland (northern Sweden).

Fermentation is one of humanity’s oldest methods for treating and preserving food. In Sweden, for example, archaeological finds from fermentation facilities in southern Sweden have been discovered that are 9,000 years old.

Fermenting fish specifically was something that was very common primarily in the northern and western parts of Sweden, writes Levande historia. As early as 1572, fermented fish is mentioned, and the oldest evidence for the word surströmming is from 1732. It was naturally common to make fermented fish from herring, but other types of fish were also used: roach, perch, as well as whitefish, trout and char.

Even though surströmming has a very special odor, “sur” (sour) doesn’t mean it’s spoiled or rotten, but simply that it’s acidified.

Salted and fermented herring

Salting was also a common way to preserve fish. The difference between salting and fermenting is precisely the amount of salt, but also fermentation. When making salted herring, you use a high amount of salt that prevents bacteria in the fish from fermenting and thus preserves it. With surströmming, you instead use a lower amount of salt and let the bacteria ferment.

Gustav Vasa’s salt shortage

During the 16th century, Sweden was hit by a salt shortage because the then-king Gustav Vasa allegedly mismanaged his credits with trading partner Lübeck, something that Surströmming Academy writes about. As punishment for this, salt deliveries to Sweden were cut off. This in turn led to a marked increase in the production of fermented fish and surströmming because less salt was required.

Even during the 18th century, Sweden was hit by another salt shortage due to discord with England. The salt shortage led to less production of salted herring, and more surströmming.

Birch bark and barrels

To produce surströmming, the fish was first cleaned, then lightly salted in a barrel and covered with birch bark. The barrel was closed with a tight lid. There is evidence that the barrel was often buried and the fermentation process allowed to take place this way, which has led to the fish sometimes being called “grave fish”. Otherwise, the barrels were often stored in a lakeside shed. The fish fermented during the summer and was then eaten in the fall.

Surströmming premiere at restaurant Tennstopet in 1950. Photo: Gunnar Lantz

From everyday food to delicacy

Surströmming was common everyday food in the past and was often eaten by simple and poor households, primarily along the Norrland coast (northern Sweden’s coastline). Originally, surströmming was sold in the barrels it was made in or in open vessels, but during Sweden’s industrialization, the fish began to be sold in canned form.

During the latter part of the 20th century, Swedes began to regard surströmming as a delicacy. In 1940, it was legislated that the surströmming premiere should be the third Thursday in August. This was because authorities wanted to ensure that the fish had fermented sufficiently before it was sold and eaten by the public. The law remained until 1988, but despite this, the tradition of the surströmming premiere lives on primarily in the northern parts of Sweden.

Ulvön island is often called the island of surströmming because it was the place where the fish began to be produced in larger volumes. Today, no industrial production of surströmming takes place on the island, but the spirit of surströmming lives on among the population. In 1999, for example, the Surströmming Academy was founded to maintain the culture. Today there is a museum and the surströmming premiere is a traditional highlight on the island.

Traditional celebrations also exist in other cities. Today there are nine salteries that produce surströmming in Sweden.

Today, half of all surströmming is consumed north of the Dalälven river and the other half south of the river, particularly in Stockholm, Sweden. More than half of those who eat surströmming do so only once a year.

Schnapps is part of it

Eating surströmming is a festive occasion where family and friends gather to eat the fermented fish. It’s a tradition that lives on and not much has changed regarding how it’s eaten.

Due to the strong smell, it’s recommended to open it outdoors, but this wasn’t done in the past. Then you weren’t a “real surströmming eater,” according to stories recorded by the Institute for Language and Folklore.

You opened the lid and the good ‘whiff’ was allowed to spread. Then you take the surströmming directly from the can and eat it like that”, told Karin Wedin (born 1884), Per Perssson (born 1891) and Anders Liiv (born 1881) in Hedesunda and Valbo, Gästrikland in 1973 (Isof Uppsala, ULMA 29063).

After chewing the surströmming directly from the can, it was also common to eat it with accompaniments. These accompaniments are still eaten today and consist of boiled almond potatoes, flatbread, chopped onion and sour cream. Often the surströmming is placed on the flatbread together with the accompaniments, but you can also make a so-called surströmming sandwich where you also butter the bread and fold it together into a sandwich.

It’s often served with schnapps, but also beer, something that also lives on from the past.

You drink schnapps the whole time. It’s said that real surströmming lovers eat up to twenty herrings”, the same storytellers as above have testified.

Classic serving of surströmming. Photo: Robert Anders/CC BY 2.0

“Surströmming Challenge”

During the 2010s, surströmming reached foreign shores, not because of its delicacy status in Sweden – but because of its “stinking” character. On social media, under the hashtag “stinkyfishchallenge”, it became popular for people to film themselves both opening surströmming cans and eating it.

The viral spread has made surströmming more famous in Swedish food culture and attracts food enthusiasts as well as tourists to surströmming events.

Time To Rock delivers

This year's edition of the rock festival Time To Rock took place in Knislinge, a small town in Skåne, southern Sweden. During four July days, The Nordic Times' cultural reporter Mikael Rasmussen was on site to experience a festival filled with emotional artistry that blends well with a strong familial community spirit – and of course: Loads of music!

Published 8 August 2025
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5 minute read

The four days were filled with community, appreciation and a tremendous amount of music. It’s friendly, cozy and the visitors who choose to attend Time To Rock do so with care. The festival is like a big family that welcomes and integrates. It strikes most visitors what a thoughtful spirit prevails within the constructed community called Time To Rock.

The musical acts are numerous and varied where many tastes are truly satisfied. It’s especially charming to observe when children also come along and show appreciation as well as provide humor in that way that only children can when, for example, their favorite band performs. Smash Into Pieces attracted children and adults alike where the entire festival area swayed as both seated and standing audience members sang along, applauded and smiled in agreement at how well everything fits like a glove.


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The promised land of camping life

The festival is also reaching its limit in terms of accommodation for those who choose to camp. There were 300 more overnight guests than last year and now the Time To Rock management needs to look for land alternatives. This means the festival can accommodate approximately 1,100 camping guests. But the land issue becomes a tough nut to crack, expresses Martin, the camping general maestro, who guided Mikael Rasmussen around the camping area in his fine golf cart. There’s a lot of recycling during these days where a collaboration with a dealer in Kristianstad, Sweden enables them to even return cans from Germany, for example, precisely because there’s such a quantity and the metal is valuable, just as valuable as the metal music that’s played and performed from the stages.

For example, the German veteran band Dirkschneider performed with Udo Dirkschneider and his characteristic workshop height that thereby lifted the entire atmosphere to the audience’s delight. Their repertoire on this occasion was to play all the songs from the legendary album Balls To The Wall which celebrated its 40th anniversary. There was also an opportunity for the audience to rock out to Dirkschneider’s encore conducting the song Princess Of The Dawn.

Three stages with 47 bands where most of the playing schedule held up health-wise except for Black Ingvars who we missed with their interpretations of children’s songs, schlager and dance band swing in incredibly heavy hard rock arrangements. At short notice, the band Alien replaced Black Ingvars’ absence instead. It’s enjoyment for all the senses with all the bands that perform. There are wonderful bands like Quireboys who offered beautiful southern rock with elements of very competent rock harmonica. The band Oomph thundered like Rammstein and the singer offered theatrical looks and expressions. More senses were also satisfied when Cobra Spell performed in latex, leather and managed to conceal the most intimate parts in kinky leather and latex as well as their instruments.

Crescendo on the fourth day

Clearly the best was the last day of the festival’s four fully packed days of beer, food, camping and musical equilibrium. Always equally fantastic to see and hear Mikkey Dee from legendary King Diamond then Motörhead and now frequently touring with Scorpions, where he traveled from Hannover to Knislinge, Sweden to perform songs from the time with Motörhead.

It’s a shame about the bands that have to perform bad songs to empty audiences while well-composed melodies are a pride to perform such as Ace Of Spades, said Mikkey with a twinkle in his eye.

What song should we play now then, Mikkey asked the audience. Ace of Base, came the joking response from the audience.

The program continued and was followed thereafter by, for example, Jean Beauvoir, the children’s favorite Smash Into Pieces with delicious catchy songs, cool computer graphics and fire show. Then Majestica with fantastic guitar equilibrium by Tommy Johansson like Yngwie Malmsteen and with a singing voice that in its highest registers conjures images of Judas Priest’s Rob Halford himself. Yes, these are truly powerful experiences and the program delivers and then tops it off with Myrath who alternates oriental dance and musical elements in their metal-based melodic compositions.

The charismatic theater and drama-dressed singer Noora Louhimo in Battle Beast gives her band and the festival’s visitors new dimensions and it would be desirable if the musicians also knew to match the artistic drama queen Noora. New as master of ceremonies this year was Orvar Säfström.

Welcome to your comfortable comfort zone! Orvar encouraged the audience in a hymn to the legendary departed Lemmy from Motörhead. The audience was urged to look up to the sky because that’s where he is, stated Säfström, and nowhere else!

Another encounter that touches my soul and heart is with one of the festival’s most frequent visitors. The person is named Jens Björk and we can all see him usually sitting in his wheelchair on the designated wheelchair ramps with a good view of the stages and artists. At regular intervals, Jens wants to film with his smartphone or stand up and groove to the rhythmically heavy hard rock and metal songs that reach him perhaps deeper than the rest of us. Jens suffered a stroke and subsequent aphasia about 10 years ago and has since undergone various therapeutic treatments.

Jens constantly works on practicing language, movements and social contexts. It feels extra nice when trust is built up and our mutual patience means we understand each other and music is like wisdom at such a frequency that it can only be perceived. Therefore music can be healing and curative, and despite the high sound volume streaming from the speakers at Time To Rock, the ears are not damaged but instead the tones reach deep into the audience’s bodies. And Jens texts me a couple of days after Time To Rock packed up and writes like this:

“Good evening! Jens here with the wheelchair. Now I’ve woken up after a wonderful festival in Knislinge and the last band Sonata Arctica – really lovely end to the festival”.

This certainly puts a finger on how important these fantastic festivals are!

Bows & curtseys

So thanks to the entire Time To Rock management with festival general Andreas Martinsson at the helm, press manager and everyone’s Andreas Hygge Hügard to all those who built up the festival environment, host and security personnel, emergency services such as police and ambulance who also like the church had a welcoming event element where those who wanted to familiarize themselves with its so important functions. These good people were Time To Rock 2025 and visitors already express a longing for Knislinge’s oasis. May all good energies flow!

And we also put in a request for next year — the fantastic goth rock band Fields Of The Nephilim. Thanks in advance!

 

Mikael Rasmussen alias Artist Razz

The Hobbit first edition discovered in UK home fetches €50000

Published 7 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The first edition released in 1937 was printed in only 1,500 copies.
2 minute read

A rare first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” has been sold for £43,000 (approximately €50,000). The book was discovered by chance in a house in Bristol, England.

“The Hobbit”, which was later followed by “The Lord of the Rings”, tells the story of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins who embarks on an adventure with a group of dwarves to reclaim treasure from the dragon Smaug. The book has become immensely popular, selling over one hundred million copies and has also been adapted into films during the 2010s. The first edition of the book, released in 1937, was originally printed in only 1,500 copies. Today, only about a hundred copies of the first edition are believed to remain in the world.

During a routine house clearance conducted by auction house Auctioneum, the book was discovered by chance in a house in Bristol, England. Caitlin Riley, the auction house’s specialist in rare books, randomly pulled out a green book from the bookshelf.

It was clearly an early Hobbit at first glance, so I just pulled it out and began to flick through it, never expecting it to be a true first edition, she told The Guardian.

“Very special book”

The copy is bound in light green cloth and features black and white illustrations by Tolkien. Riley soon realized it was a first edition. It was also in incredibly fine condition, which is uncommon since most of these books are usually worn, especially since it’s a children’s book.

The book was auctioned with a starting price of £10,000, equivalent to approximately €11,500. Bidders from around the world drove the price up to more than four times what the auction house had expected. Finally, the book sold for £43,000, approximately €50,000.

It’s a wonderful result for a very special book.

A poem about the children in Gaza while the world watches

The genocide in Gaza

The children cry from hunger and dream of peace – but the world remains silent. Swedish artist and poet Malin Sellergren depicts the unbearable reality of children in this poem.

Published 5 August 2025
2 minute read

Daily terror, daily pain,
children cry in Gaza’s rain.
Six thousand trucks with food denied,
they starve while waiting on the side.

The bombs fall hard, the homes are gone,
on the cold ground they sleep until dawn.
At night they scream from endless fear,
by day they cry with hunger near.

When will this torment find its end?
When will the broken hearts still find mend?
No bread to eat, no life to live,
a mother’s boy had love to give.

He thought, I made it, almost there!
but bullets struck and stilled his air.
So many tried for food that day,
the soldiers came and shot their way.

And in the streets, so many fall,
just children, innocent through all.
For they were born in Palestine,
their lives erased, erased in line.

The world’s afraid, its leaders weak,
they whisper low, but dare not speak.
Sanctions stall, while time runs thin,
should we boycott oranges… or tangerines?

Yet weapons flow from west to east,
while crumbs are dropped, a guilty feast.
Millions starve, their hope is small,
the world looks on, and does not call.

No one dares to say “Enough!”
Israel’s hand is far too tough.
And those who speak are smeared with hate,
their voices drowned, their words too late.

Meanwhile children pay the price,
their lives are bartered, sacrificed.
Leaders claim this land their own,
they crush the seeds the kids have sown.

But still, among the ash and flame,
the children whisper freedom’s name.
Though caught in Gaza on the street
some of their hearts still beat.

 

Malin Sellergren, PoeticArtstories

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