Arguably the most famous symbol of Sweden, it even spilt over to souvenir stores in Denmark; the Dalahast or Dala horse, is the most recognized Swedish folk art globally.
Once a by-product of a local furniture-making business sold as a toy and even as barter item later, these carved wooden figurines have been ingrained into Swedish culture for as long as one can remember.
Many stories are about the Dala horse, from Paganism and witchcraft to Vikings. The horse was considered a status symbol and a highly valued property in the Swedish household.
These days Dala horse is a traditional gift in Sweden for any life celebration like weddings and graduations. Few folks even treat the much-loved Swedish souvenir as collector’s items. We get it; it’s beautiful and intricate, with meaningful symbolism to start a collection on.
So yeah, with so much story and history behind it, how could someone not bring one back?
Kurbits Painting
Most Dala horses in Stockholm are decorated in the Kurbits style. On the horse, it’s Kurbits painting typically shown in the flower-patterned saddle. But this has only sometimes been the case. As per traditions, these horses are painted in red or even left as is without paint. Still, in the 1830s Swedish artist StikÃ¥ Erik Hansson became famous for painting his unique Dala horses with a two-colour simplified form of Kurbits decoration. His Dala horse pattern has since become the tradition for Dala horse making in Sweden.
Most common Dalahast
The horse we got from Sweden was also decorated in Kurbits painting. So we named our Dala horse Gunilo ━ as a homage to its’ painter,Rosmalaren Gunilla Bergman Soini is a wonderful artist whose autograph appears on the horse’s body to verify its authenticity.
Born and raised in Dala-Floda, Dalarna. She has been painting Kurbits since even before we were born. The storekeeper in the Stockholm Old Town, where we got our Dalahast, told us there is a meaning behind each Dala Horse colour. Red which means passion and energy, is the most famous one. Much similar to the dark red paint that covers most of the houses in the Swedish countryside. The orange colour represents happiness. Meanwhile, like the one we got, black symbolizes strength and power. It seems fitting, though we picked it before knowing about this because we were drawn to it the minute we saw it.
When someone wants to bring back a piece of Swedish culture as a souvenir from Sweden, they should look no further than the beautifully painted wooden Dala horse. We even added visiting Dalarna to see it making it into our World Culture Wonder List.
Dala Horse Equivalent and Other Cultures
If someone doesn’t like a horse, they can get other farm animals, such as roosters or pigs.
Also, a wooden Dala horse is expensive. We got ours for 650SEK, which is around 100AUD. We can’t remember the last time we bought a “toy” for that price.
All this research on the Dala horse made us wonder whether it has an equivalent in other cultures. Unfortunately, we can only think of the Japanese Daruma, Danish Hoptimist and Russian Matryoshka dolls.