* The Swedish Christmas Ljuskröna

"The Other Swedes"
Honoring Them and Remembering Them
~ The Lindsborg Swedes, Their Neighbors & Friends

On Dr. Greta Swenson: "She used her intellect and rapier wit to guide the Folklife Institutes future."
-- Mark and Mardel Esping, 2020

Dr. Greta Swenson and Mr. & Mrs. Mark Esping
~ Remembering them for founding Lindsborg's "first"
"Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas" 1986
(Dr. Swenson was, and the Espings are, Swedish Augustana Lutheran Christians.)

* The Swedish Christmas Ljuskröna

The Projects and Programs

Funded by many grants including being awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Grant, one to document Wood Working and the other for slide presentations and exhibition development of several previously unstudied areas of folk art, some of the Institute projects and programs included:

"Folklife in the Schools Seminars" which provided presenters from Florida, Mississippi, Iowa and the Amana Colonies for Teachers in the State of Kansas. (Among those attending were Kansas teachers from Pratt, Wichita, Hays, Manhattan, and Kansas City, Kansas.)
Three years of presentations and/or workshops on "Immigrant Culture for Bethany College Elderhostel," including topics of Metalwork, Woodworking, Ljuskröna,* Apples Trees, Storytelling, Swedish Costume, Swedish Dancers and History at the Old Mill Museum.
The weeklong Folk Art Intensive Workshop taught by 12 Master Folk Artists, including Kepka Belton on Czech Eggs; Sonia Domsch on Bobbin Lace; Margaret Pitzer on Cherokee Basket making; and Beth Walker on Inkler loom.
Swedish Folk Craft Workshops in knifemaking and woodworking by renown Kenneth Bengtsson from Varby, Sweden who also teaches chip carving, Tine Box making and slojd knifemaking.
The sponsored storytelling contest with a trip to Sweden as a prize.
A handmade traveling exhibition that included ten photograph panels and ten Ljuskröna for destinations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and several locations in Kansas including presentations, and, at most stops, lessons on making Ljuskröna.
The ongoing weeklong "Swedish American Culture as it exists in the Midwest" program.
The 1992 fieldwork entry at the Smithsonian Institution's annual National Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. in the "Family Farm" section of a Lindsborg farm representing "Kansas Agriculture and Swedish Culture."
Travel to Sweden for: A research and presentation trip, hosted by Dr. Barbro Klein at the University of Stockholm, to deliver a speech at Stockholm's Nordiska Museet on the Ljuskröna family collections from Lindsborg and other Swedish American regions, and to further research and photograph the Ljuskröna in twelve museums throughout Sweden; also, the presentation with slides of "A Remnant Folk Art Object" at the Institutet for Folklivsforsking, Nordic Museum, Stockholm; and, as well, for the “Jubilee Year" of 1996, the presentation of exhibited works of local Lindsborg artists at the Leksand Sweden Cultural Center.
The ongoing projects:

Creating a research and resource library on folklife and folk art
Collecting stories from rural Kansas areas
Acquiring slides, negatives, video and audio tapes and objects that reflect the folklife of central Kansas
Reprinting books
Publishing research conclusions
Providing direction to those applying for Kansas Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grants
Acquiring Lindsborg Svensk Hyllningsfest Swedish costumes worn at each biennial celebration honoring Swedish immigrants
Passing on Lindsborg Svensk Hyllningsfest Swedish costumes to Mrs. Marla Ann Elmquist and the ladies who are restoring and preserving them

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Pending
* The Swedish Christmas Ljuskröna
Replica of Salemsberg Church Style
created by
Director Mark Esping of the Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas

* The Swedish Christmas Ljuskröna
Replica of Salemsberg Church Style
created by
Director Mark Esping of the Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas

Source: "Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas"

The story of the Swedish Ljuskröna by the Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas is found HERE. It includes Mrs. Mardel Esping's instructions HERE on how to create these beautiful pieces, the first of which was created by a descendent family member to celebrate the emigrant families first Christmas in Salemsberg/Salemsborg, a neighboring community north of Lindsborg, founded also in the year of 1869.

Mr. Tom Holmquist, author of the 1994 Pioneer Cross, Swedish Settlements Along the Smoky Hill Bluffs, has beautifully described the significance of using the Ljuskröna in celebrating the "first" Christmas of these Swedes in the Central Kansas Smoky Valley. With each preceding generation, that Christmas tradition has continued with each Christmas since then to 2022 and will continue for Christmas 2023. To learn more from Mr. Holmquist, go HERE. -- not linked yet.

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" Let Us Remember Them"
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Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
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