Culture

The Internet Is Furious At Swedish People For Not Feeding Their Guests

#Swedengate has taken over the internet after a Reddit thread went viral.

by Charles Rushforth  1 June 2022

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

After years of tolerating endless boasting from Scandinavian countries, we’ve finally found a crack in their armour!

From free childcare to four-day working weeks, you can’t refresh your newsfeed without being confronted by at least one article espousing the standard of living across the region.

All of that ends today because the internet has discovered a flaw in one Scandinavian country that is so fatal it’s generated its own viral hashtag: #SwedenGate.

What cultural feature could be so problematic that it could unseat years of successful socially progressive reforms and a world-toppingly happy populace you ask? Well, it revolves around food.

In a Reddit thread where users were sharing their nation’s strange cultural habits, one user casually revealed that native Swedes don’t share meals with their guests.

For example, if you’re hanging out at a friend’s house doing homework together, a Swedish person wouldn’t offer you a meal at lunchtime and would go so far as to eat in front you of while you starved.

Swedish people have bashfully taken to Twitter to confirm that yes, it’s common to shut hungry guests out of the dining room while you eat. Articles have sprung up from Swedish writers asking what the problem is.

Despite describing the practice as a logical thing and not a cultural thing, people ain’t buying it.

Now that the internet can smell the proverbial Swedish blood in the water, the pile-on has extended to a broader critique of Swedish cuisine.

Conversely, other tweeters from around the world have shared their perspective from the other extreme, going out of their way to feed their guests to the point of disruption.

It’s worth noting that not all Nordic countries starve their guests, amateur historian @WallySierk created a helpful map to break down which households you can expect to get fed or not.

Drilling down into the history of why Swedish people do this, Sierk explains that it’s related to ancient Nordic Viking culture.

“In Norse culture, hospitality (providing food, drink, lodging) was a duty of higher status individuals towards people of lower status, but the act of receiving hospitality created an obligation or debt on the part of the recipient,” @WallySierk explains.

“So, hospitality not only brought honour to the giver, it had the potential to bring shame to the recipient. So, for the sake of egalitarianism and reduction of conflict, they created a society that minimized the creation of debt and obligation, and maximised the ability of the individual/family to be self-sufficient.

“This ‘not feeding the neighbour kids’ weirdness is about maintaining peace in the community.”