Saint Stephen's Day bandy ( sv, annandagsbandy) is a Swedish sporting event in which elite

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

matches are played on

Saint Stephen's Day Saint Stephen's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December in Western Christianity and 27 December in Eastern Chri ...

(December 26th). During the 20th century, it became a Christmas tradition in Sweden.

History

The tradition dates to the 1930s, when the two clubs

IF Göta IF Göta is a sports club in Karlstad, Sweden, founded in 1904. The club used to have a successful team in bandy, becoming Swedish champions six times, but now is only concentrated on athletics. The bandy department was merged with IF Boltic to ...

and

Slottsbrons IF Slottsbrons IF is a sports club in Slottsbron, Sweden, playing bandy and association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their ...

took to playing a Saint Stephen's Day

Exhibition game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

. Despite initial objections by the

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...

to scheduling the game on the Saint Stephen's Day, the event grew in popularity thereafter. Historically, only a few instances of the Saint Stephen's Day match marked the season opener for

Elitserien Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan. Elitserien leagues at present: * Elitserien (badmint ...

, Sweden’s top division. Prior to 1957, Saint Stephen's Day was the date of the final friendly match, after which the season usually started on

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

. In 1957, the top division in Sweden resumed in December, and the Saint Stephen's Day marked the first day of seasons between 1957 and 1961, (the 1962 season began on December 31). From 1963–64 onwards the season began earlier in December, and since the 1966–67 season games have started in November. Until 1999, Saint Stephen's Day bandy was the only major sports event over Christmas in Sweden. Starting in the year 2000, its popularity led other sports to follow, such as

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

. Now people sometimes instead talk of "Saint Stephen's Day sports" ( sv, Annandagsidrott).

References

External links

Svenska Bandyförbundet website
{{Portal bar, sports, Sweden Bandy in Sweden Christmas in Sweden December sporting events 1930s establishments in Sweden Recurring sporting events established in the 1930s