Västgöta Nation, commonly known as Västgöta or VG, is one of the thirteen student nations of

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

, originally intended for students from Västergötland Province. It was founded in 1639 and thus is Uppsala's oldest nation. With about 1 200 members Västgöta Nation is one of the smaller nations at Uppsala but still has extensive cultural activities including three

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

s, a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

club and an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

. The nation's building (Swedish: nationshus) lies along the

Fyris Fyrisån (, "the Fyris river") is a river in the Swedish province of Uppland, which passes through the city of Uppsala and ends in Lake Mälaren. The "Sala" river in Uppland was changed in the 17th century in memory of the Fyrisvellir battle, m ...

ån and was probably built in 1604, though its cellar is much older. The building survived a citywide fire in 1702, unusually for central Uppsala. Amongst the building's former owners was

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

Lennart Torstenson Lennart Torstensson, Count of Ortala, Baron of Virestad (17 August 16037 April 1651), was a Swedish Field Marshal and military engineer. Early career He was born at Forstena manor in Västergötland. His parents were Märta Nilsdotter Posse a ...

, and it has been in the nation's possession since 1825.

Activities

The nation divides its activities into two main categories, culture and the 'club-office' (Swedish: klubbverket). Cultural activities include choirs (mixed choir, men's choir and ladies choir), theatre club, orchestra and sports club. The second category includes

gasques Gasques (; oc, Gascas) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Geography The Barguelonne forms most of the commune's southern border. See also *Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne department The ...

, the pub Djäknen, the fortnightly restaurant KäK, daily vegan soup lunch and weekend fika.

Club office

A gasque is traditional formal student dinner followed by an afterparty known as a släpp. In the autumn term these usually include a Kräftgasque ( crayfish gasque), Reccegasque (freshmen's gasque), Damsupé (ladies' dinner), Herrmiddag (gentlemen's dinner) and Luciagasque ( Saint Lucia's Day dinner). The autumn's biggest event is a

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...

called the Gåsmiddag or goose dinner, celebrated near

Saint Martin's Day Saint Martin's Day or Martinmas, sometimes historically called Old Halloween or Old Hallowmas Eve, is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated in the liturgical year on 11 November. In the Middle Ages and early modern period, it w ...

. The winter/spring term usually includes Reccegasque, a Kulturgasque (culture-gasque), Damsupé, Herrmiddag and Majmiddag (May dinner). The biggest events are clustered around

Walpurgis Night Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in ...

, including Tirolborg and the Vårbal (spring ball). Djäknen is the nation's pub, located in the oldest part of the nation's building, the mediaeval cellar.

Friend Nations

* Västgöta nation,

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

Nylands Nation Nylands Nation (NN) is one of the 15 student nations at the University of Helsinki, Finland's oldest, Swedish-speaking and established in 1643 at The Royal Academy of Turku. In 1828, the Academy moved to Helsinki taking the name "University" and ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

* Keskisuomalainen Osakunta, Helsinki

Inspektors

In 1663 Ericus Odhelius, professor of

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, became the nation's first

inspektor Inspektor or inspehtori, Swedish and Finnish for inspector, is the largely honorary chairman of student nations in Lund and Uppsala universities in Sweden and University of Helsinki in Finland. The inspektor has a supervisory role in their nat ...

. Bertil Wiman, professor of swedish Law and Taxes is the current inspector. ; Västergötland vapen

Västgöta nation Nations at Uppsala University Student organizations established in the 17th century {{Sweden-university-stub