The Swedish Idea of “Little Saturday” Will Get You Through the Workweek

You don’t have to wait until the weekend to decompress

Photo by Igor Miske on Unsplash

There’s a new hope that soon we’ll all be vaccinated and some aspects of life will begin to look more normal. But for many of us, today still feels like a carbon copy of yesterday and the week before and last month. Each day includes three Zoom calls, staring out the window, eating snacks for dinner, and then accidentally checking work emails from the couch at 9 p.m. No wonder we feel burnt out.

The Scandinavian and Nordic countries have a tradition that might just offer some relief: breaking up the workweek with a celebration on Wednesday nights. In Swedish it’s called lillördag, or “Little Saturday.” Leslie Anderson, the Director of Collections, Exhibition and Programs at the National Nordic Museum, spent time as a Fulbright Scholar in Denmark, where she and her colleagues celebrated lillördag each week. Sometimes they went out to dinner or for a drink, other times they spent that time relaxing at home.