We at KÄLLSTRÖM would like to wish all our customers and subcontractors a Merry Christmas (God Jul) and A Happy New Year (Gott Nytt År).
Best regards from all of us to all of you!
Today at December 13 Lucia is celebrated in Sweden (“Saint Lucy’s Day” in English). All over Scandinavia this date is associated with the longest night of the year (and consequencely the shortest day), since it’s coinciding with Winter Solstice. It is said that to vividly celebrate Saint Lucy’s Day will help one live the long winter days with enough light.
The fact is that in the 1800’s it was only men that appeared as Lucia. The Swedish Lucia tradition was first started among the Swedish universities where female students wheren’t allowed at that time. Nowadays there are some controversy over males as Lucia (amongst narrowminded people).
The modern tradition of having public processions in the Swedish cities really took off in 1927 when a newspaper in Stockholm elected an official Lucia for Stockholm that year. The initiative was then followed around the country through the local press. Today most cities in Sweden appoint a Lucia every year. Schools elect a Lucia and her maids among the students and a national Lucia is elected on national television from regional winners. The regional Lucias will visit shopping malls, old people’s homes and churches, singing and handing out gingernut cookies (pepparkakor). Guinness World Records has noted the Lucia procession in Ericsson Globe in Stockholm as the largest in the world, with 1200 participants from Adolf Fredrik’s Music School, Stockholms Musikgymnasium and Stockholms läns Blåsarsymfoniker.
Lucia is a major feast day in Scandinavia, Sankta Lucia is represented as a lady in a white dress (a symbol of a Christian’s white baptismal robe) and red sash (symbolizing the blood of her martyrdom) with a crown or wreath of candles on her head. In Norway, Sweden and Swedish-speaking regions of Finland, as songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucy carry cookies and saffron buns in procession, which “symbolizes bringing the light of Christianity throughout world darkness”. Nowadays Sweden are a rather secular society and for most people it doesn’t hold a religious significance but are rather a light festival where we celebrate the light in the darkness, since it is the darkest time of the year and we are waiting for the (day)light to return to our northerly regions.
Devotion to Saint Lucy is also practiced in the Italian regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige, in the north of the country, and Sicily, in the south, as well as in the Croatian coastal region of Dalmatia.
At the moment we are fully engaged in the mounting of solar panels on the roof of our new assembly hall. The first section is up already and the solar boys are working diligently despite ice, snow and winds. We will cover the entire roof-area which in the end will be upwards 400 square meters of solar panels. We are very excited to see the installation completed and commissioned so we will start generating clean solar-power.
Solar panels in the making. The plan is to be self-sufficient and even generate a small surplus.
It’s that time of the year again – when the winter is over us and surprises us with heaps of snow. A look out the window at Källström today looks like this. Driving to work is a bit of a trial in ice and snow. But in our assemblyhall it’s business as usual and we are building sewveral machines at full pace under our banana-trees, in spite of all the cold and snow.
Källström will be participating in the virtual ABC this year. Källström have been attending the Asian Battery Conference several times and due to the Corona pandemic the 19:th edition of the conferens will be virtual.
We look forward to be a part of the virtual edition of the 19th Asian Battery Conference & Exhibition.
Conference Website
https://asianbatteryconference.com/
Dates & Times
3 – 5 November 2021
The event will commence at 4.00 PM Singapore Time each day.
Agenda
The Agenda for the Conference is now available on their website:
https://asianbatteryconference.com/agenda-2/
Yet another shipment is under the way and the fillers are as always properly secured by bolts and straps in the container before sent away from Källströms. Workshop manager Mirek is overlooking the loading to make sure everything is as it should be before departure. Two new SF4-2 on the way to the customer.
The new sign on the facade is up and we got a very nice patio in the sunny corner where we have both breakfast, lunch and afternoon fika, when the weather allows. In the big windows of the hall one can glimpse our banana plants that are growing like crazy after they arrived to the new assembly hall. They are just as happy as we are about the new building.