Kräftskiva
kräftskiva [ˈkrɛ̂ftˌɧiːva]
“is an annual eating and drinking tradition surrounding crayfish.”
If you are not from Sweden or the nearby countries, chances of you having heard about crayfish parties, are small. If you grew up in Sweden, like myself, its unavoidable.
This is an ongoing project about my birthplace and all its wonderful and weird traditions.
When I was a kid, we had to bring “a memory” with us to kindergarten from our summer holiday to show what we had been up to. Other kids brough pretty stones they had found, sand from a beach they had been to, maybe a souvenir from a holiday abroad. Myself I brough a bucket with a live crayfish. I carefully took it out of the bucket to show the other kids at assembly and if you haven’t guessed already, my summer memory was a big hit.
Normally people of Sweden don’t keep like crayfish in buckets, we fish them, cook them and with family and friends we throw a party and eat them by the masses. The annual tradition of throwing crayfish parties’ dates back to the 16th centaury where it was popular among the royals, and in the 17th centaury it was available to the broader population. The Kräftskiva we know today took shape in the early 1960’s and has stayed more or less the same since.
Kräftskiva season starts from august and runs well into September. Traditionally a ban of fishing crayfish was held until beginning of august each year and when it was lifted, the party season began. I have strong memories from late summer nights of laying out the cages with my grandad and waiting until the morning to check if any of them were filled with crayfish. Sometimes there would be so many I couldn’t even count them, sometimes only one small little one that would do better being thrown back into the water. The crayfish would be taken out of their cages and placed in water for a couple of hours, for them to, excuse the language, poop out whatever they needed before they could be prepped to be cooked.
What is so special about kräftskiva?
A kräftskiva is always enjoyed with family and friends. The word “– skiva” means party or gathering but comes from the word “bordsskiva” that means tabletop, referencing the food and drink you would have at a gathering. The association to the word meant a great or large party and where lots of alcohol would be consumed. This was established in the early 1900s. To me, this is the tradition to say goodbye to the summer. It is the last few days of everyone’s holiday and just before going back to the everyday life. The warm late summer nights, the sun doesn’t go down until late, everyone has a tan they have been working on all summer and the atmosphere is calm and relaxed. Friends are catching up on what they have spent their holiday on, where they have been, food they have eaten and what they are excited to go back to the cities for.
The large trays of crayfish are placed in the middle of the tables and party hats are given out. Theres bottles of “Snaps” which is spirits made from caraway seeds, and song books for everyone. The snaps is taken after each song that’s being sang in between eating and slurping the crayfish. There is typically an order to eating crayfish. You start with sucking out the juices the crayfish was cooked in. you take the crayfish and just under the head, you lift the “lid” and remove the head – we don’t eat the head. With your special crayfish knife, you scrape the inside and bite into the filling. The claws are being cracked with special tongs and then eaten as well. Beer is the main drink alongside snaps.
