Facts: International Four Days
Since 2003, the Swedish Fireworks Society has organized the International Fireworks Day. This year the event is celebrated on August 20-21.
Close to 90 lighthouses are opened in various locations in Sweden, many with guided tours.
The four days usually attract around 10,000 people each year. Due to the pandemic, there were fewer visits, around 6,000, last year, but this year the Swedish Lighthouse Society is experiencing great interest. The peak was in 2019, when around 18,000 people visited lighthouses around the country.
In addition to Sweden, the day is celebrated in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, England, Finland, Holland, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Scotland, Germany, the USA and Wales, among others.
Information about times and which lighthouses are open can be found on the website of the Swedish Lighthouse Society.
Source: Swedish Lighthouse Society, Swedish Maritime Administration
Interesting destinies, adventures and maritime stories. This is how Jan Olsén, chairman of the Swedish Lighthouse Society, summarizes what you can learn about on the guided tours that are being conducted this weekend at a large number of lighthouses around the country.
— When the lighthouses were manned, it was very special to live and live all year round in such an environment. There is a lot of cultural history and maritime history. The lighthouses were built in places that were difficult to navigate, so there are many maritime accidents noted nearby, he says.
Fantastically beautiful
If you are uninterested in history, perhaps the view will attract you instead.
“The lighthouses are very nicely located in the outer archipelago, they are special but fantastically beautiful places,” says Jan Olsén.
Close to 90 lighthouses are kept open this weekend as part of the International Fire Days celebrations, which usually attract around 10,000 visitors. After two quieter pandemic years, interest is now expected to be high.
Part of the purpose of the four days is to create public opinion to preserve lighthouses, so that they continue to shine in times of satellite navigation with, among other things, GPS taking over.
Become more important
— The lighthouses at the far end of the coast are not of much use to shipping today, the fairway lighthouses, on the other hand, still have a great nautical value. During the war in Ukraine, we have seen that the GPS system has been disrupted so that the digital navigation does not work, then you as a navigator must have a plan b and in that camp the lighthouses are growing in importance, says Jan Olsén.
TT: Do you have a favorite lighthouse yourself?
— I have long ago worked at the lighthouse Landsort’s pilot site on the island of Öja, so it is a little extra special, says Jan Olsén.