The Majblomma (definite form: Majblomman; Swedish for 'mayflower') is a paper flower pin sold by schoolchildren in Sweden to raise funds for charity. The Mayflower fundraiser was started in Onsala by Beda Hallberg in 1907, [1] and has taken place in April and May every year since.
The flower pin design has four parts; two groups of five-leaved paper petals, often a small paper disc, and a metal pin, in a different colour combination each year.
Hallberg was an active member of Gothenburg's charity movement, and had the idea of selling mayblomma pins, to raise funds for tuberculosis research.
Born in 1869 in Onsala, she was the youngest daughter of a captain and a farmer's daughter. Her father left the family in 1870 to emigrate to the US. She is thought to have married a tobacco dealer in 1888 and got involved with Gothenburg charity work in 1890.[ citation needed ]
After seeing her daughter with a Gustavus Adolphus Day paper badge, she founded a committee including Frigga Carlberg, a feminist social worker and writer, as well as the municipal physician (stadsläkare) K. J. Gezelius. Despite others doubting her idea, she ordered 100,000 blue-coloured paper flower pins and decided to sell them for 10 öre each (equivalent to SEK4.79in 2009), an affordable price for most.
Her campaign became a tremendous success. Around 139,000 Mayflowers were sold on 1 May 1907 in Gothenburg – exceeding even Beda's expectations.
A local newspaper wrote the following:
The blue flower has won. The whole city celebrates it. You see it everywhere, wherever you come, on lapels and coats, scarves and shawls. Businessmen, civil servants, workers, old men and children, tram conductors, police officers, kayakers, drivers – they all carry the flower and feel that everyone is happy to be involved. It is the ideal of ideas: simple, enthusiastic and poignant.
The colours of the Swedish majblomma from 1926 to 2023. During the early years, the shape could vary somewhat.
Following the initial success in Sweden, similar mayflower fund raising took place in Finland (1908), Norway and Denmark (1909), The Netherlands and Belgium (1910), Russia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France (1911), Britain and Estonia (1912), Algeria (1913), Cuba (1916), The US (1922) and India (1932). However, as tuberculosis rates in Europe declined, most international charities eventually disbanded, and now only remain in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Estonia (today with different missions).
Christmas seals are adhesive labels that are similar in appearance to postage stamps that are sold then affixed to mail during the Christmas season to raise funds and awareness for charitable programs. Christmas seals have become particularly associated with lung diseases such as tuberculosis, and with child welfare in general. They were first issued in Denmark beginning in 1904, with Sweden and Iceland following with issues that same year. Thereafter the use of Christmas seals proved to be popular and spread quickly around the world, with 130 countries producing their own issues.
Svenska Handelsbanken AB is a Swedish bank providing banking services including traditional corporate transactions, investment banking and trading as well as consumer banking including insurance. Handelsbanken is one of the major banks in Sweden with a nationwide branch network.
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor (finansborgarråd) of Stockholm (1940–1950).
The MS Rigel III is a cruiseferry owned by the Greek-based company Ventouris Ferries. She was built in 1979 as MS Turella by Wärtsilä Turku shipyard, Finland for SF Line for use in Viking Line traffic. In 1988 she was sold to Stena Line, becoming MS Stena Nordica. In 1996, she was transferred to Lion Ferry and was renamed MS Lion King. In 1998, she was sold to Tallink and renamed MS Fantaasia. As Fantaasia she also sailed under charter to Algérie Ferries, Comanav and Kystlink during the years 2005–2008. Following the end of her charter to Kystlink in 2008 the latter company bought her, renaming her MS Kongshavn. After Kystlink was declared bankrupt in late 2008 the ship was laid up until sold to the Croatia-based ferry operator Blue Line International, and operated on their service between Split and Ancona as MS Regina della Pace. In 2017 the ship was sold to the Greek-based company Ventouris Ferries and is currently operating on the route Bari-Durres.
The Sick Child is the title given to a group of six paintings and a number of lithographs, drypoints and etchings completed by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch between 1885 and 1926. All record a moment before the death of his older sister Johanne Sophie (1862–1877) from tuberculosis at 15. Munch returned to this deeply traumatic event repeatedly in his art over a period of more than 40 years. In the works, Sophie is typically shown on her deathbed accompanied by a dark-haired, grieving woman assumed to be her aunt Karen; the studies often show her in a cropped head shot. In all the painted versions Sophie is sitting in a chair, obviously suffering from pain, propped by a large white pillow, looking towards an ominous curtain likely intended as a symbol of death. She is shown with a haunted expression, clutching hands with a grief-stricken older woman who seems to want to comfort her but whose head is bowed as if she cannot bear to look the younger girl in the eye.
Rosa Sofia Ingeborg Taikon, formerly Janusch and Widegren, was a Swedish Romani silversmith and activist. From the Kalderash subgroup, Taikon first received public recognition for her work as a silversmith. Following the murder of her brother in 1962, Taikon and her sister Katarina became noted Romani activists against antiziganism in Sweden as well as abroad. For her contribution to Romani rights, Taikon was awarded the Olof Palme Prize in 2013.
Louise and Luise are, respectively, French and German feminine forms of the given name Louis. Louise has been regularly used as a female name in English speaking countries since the middle of the 19th century. It has ranked among the top 100 names given to girls in France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and Wales in recent years. It last ranked among the top 1,000 first names for girls born in the United States in 1991, but remains a more common middle name.
Sigrid Lidströmer (1866–1942), granddaughter of the architect Fredrik August Lidströmer, was a Swedish author, polemicist and translator. She wrote articles in the Swedish literary magazine Idun, wrote and translated songs, novels, short stories, polemical articles, and poems from and to Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, German, French and English.
Hedvig Charlotta Raa-Winterhjelm, née Forssman, was a Swedish actress active in Sweden, Norway and Finland. She played a pioneer role in Finland by introducing Finnish as a stage language, becoming the first actor in Finland to speak her lines in the Finnish tongue.
Ingela Olofsdotter Gathenhielm was a Swedish shipowner and privateer in service of King Charles XII of Sweden during the Great Northern War.
Aino is a female given name used in Finland, Estonia, and Japan.
August Gailit was an Estonian writer.
The Tall Ships Races are races for sail training "tall ships". The races are designed to encourage international friendship and training for young people in the art of sailing. The races are held annually in European waters and consists of two racing legs of several hundred nautical miles, and a "cruise in company" between the legs. Over one half of the crew of each ship participating in the races must consist of young people.
Emilia Maria Fogelklou-Norlind was a Swedish pacifist, theologian, feminist, author and lecturer. She was the first woman in Sweden to receive a bachelor’s degree in theology, and her written work spans 28 published books.
Soldiers of Odin is an anti-immigrant group which was founded in Kemi, Finland, in October 2015. The group was established in response to the thousands of migrants who were arriving in Finland amidst the European migrant crisis. They call themselves a "patriotic organisation that fights for a Finland" that wants to scare away "Islamist intruders" they say cause insecurity and increase crime.
Hanna Karhinen was a Finnish Social Democratic Party and later Communist Party politician and activist. She served in the Parliament of Finland from 1913 to 1916. During the 1918 Finnish Civil War Karhinen was a member of the Central Workers' Council of Finland and commissioner of interior in the Finnish People's Delegation. She was executed in 1938.
Asta Ekenvall was a Swedish librarian, one of the founders of the Kvinnohistorisk arkiv of the University of Gothenburg and a pioneer in research and philosophy of women's history.
Sara Louise Antoinette Falkenberg née Ekman (1849–1934) was a Swedish baroness or freiherrinna who is remembered for her extensive philanthropic activities. These covered a home for sick children, the care of foster children after the First World War, and support for cultural and educational institutions, including the University of Gothenburg. For 30 years, she chaired the board of Crown Princess Louisa's Children's Hospital.
Beda Hallberg (1869–1945) was a Swedish philanthropist. She is known as the founder of the Majblomma Fundraiser Society, for the purpose of benefitting public health, which she founded in Gothenburg in 1907.
Elisabet Petersson (1873–1919) was a Swedish zoologist and a high school teacher, who is remembered for her pioneering work in collecting materials from marine research stations for the Gothenburg National History Museum. From 1913, she organized several trips to the North Sea coast, including the islands of Heligoland, Germany, and Väderöarna, Sweden. She also collaborated with the Trondhjem Biological Station in Norway and the Kristineberg Marine Research Station on Sweden's Gullmarn Fjord. She died of tuberculosis in March 1919, aged only 46. The many marine echinoderms she collected can be seen in the Gothenburg Natural History Museum while her photographs are preserved in the museum's archives.
