Höststädning (höst + städning) means "autumn clean" and refers to a big tidy-up at the start of the colder season. You can do this on your own at home, but in Sweden many housing associations and apartment blocks also organise a höststädning day as a group activity.
Usually the association will invite residents to take part in the day, which might involve weeding, planting autumn flowers, cleaning the communal bins, and bringing any outdoor furniture inside. It's a chance to get to know the neighbours and coffee and snacks like biscuits or hotdogs are often provided for helpers.
There's also a spring counterpart, vårstädning, when the outdoor furniture gets taken out and bulbs are planted for the summer flower beds.
- Don't miss any of The Local's Swedish words and expressions of the day by downloading our app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Swedish Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button
Sweden is generally considered a tough place to make friends, and even to get to know neighbours – it's not that common, for example, to knock on neighbours' doors to introduce yourself as a new arrival, especially in big cities where apartment blocks have a relatively higher turnover of residents.
But participating in these organised chores, as well as getting involved with the association's board itself, is a way to meet your neighbours.
You can also use höststäda as a verb, for example höststäda trädgården (to give the garden an autumn clean).
In Sweden, the autumn season has a strict meteorological definition.
Höst only arrives once the average daytime temperature has stayed below an average of 10C for five consecutive days, which can happen as late as November (although usually some time in mid-October) in the southernmost parts of the country.
When that threshold is reached, the first day of the five-day period is considered the start of autumn. Autumn then becomes winter when the average temperature is below an average of 0C for five consecutive days. That means höst arrives and lasts for very different times depending on where you are in the country.
Höst originally meant "harvest", with both the Swedish and English words related to the Old Norse word haust. Haust originally referred to gathering, but became used as the general term for the season in which farmers gathered their crops.
In the UK, as populations moved away from rural living, haust was overtaken by "autumn" from the Latin term autumnus in general speech, and from the 1500s onwards "harvest" took on a narrower, specifically agricultural meaning.
But further north, rural farming societies lasted much longer and they and their languages were less influenced by Latin. So Sweden kept the word höst, which is related to German der Herbst and Norwegian haust. Today, the Swedish word for "harvest" is skörd.
Example sentences:
Har ni några planer för helgen? Nä, inte riktigt, vi ska mest höststäda.
Do you guys have any plans for the weekend? Nah, not really, we're mainly going to be autumn cleaning.
Kommer ni till höststädningen på lördag? Hela föreningen kommer vara där.
Are you coming to the autumn clean-up on Saturday? The entire [housing] association will be there.
Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it.
It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.