| Summary: | In the Swedish peasant society, the church was an important venue. In areas were the church in the parish was located nearby a lake, the easiest way to reach the church was by boat. This was the case in several parishes around the lake Siljan in the province Dalarna, which is the focal point of this study. The villages were large, and the villagers would organise themselves in large boats, so called church-boats. Due to technological innovations, as one important aspect, there were no longer any need for the church-boats at the time of the turn of the 20th century. Some decades into the new century the old boats were once again taken into use and new boats of the same type were taken into production. In 1936 an organized racing competition with church-boats was initiated, and this still lives on today. This study examines the contemporary customs surrounding church-boats on Siljan in the character of competition as well as journeys to the church. The main part of the material is collected through ethnological fieldwork, conducted through interviews and observation/participant-observation, supplemented with a wide range of other material such as internet sources as well as textual and visual material. Aspects that are highlighted is the different characters of the custom, how the custom today is expressed in relation to the past, how local identity is expressed through the custom and what role its performers see for the custom today and for the future. One aspect that is highlighted is the stagnated interest in the usage of the church-boats but narratives with a positive tone are given room as well. A crucial proposition of the study is how the custom in its era as revitalized cultural heritage is filled with new values. Its historical purpose is no longer of relevance and today the usage of the church-boats comes with other purposes such as a cultural historical interest, tourism and sport. It is also shown how changes and preservation both serves as necessary components for the further existence of the cultural heritage. Crucial theoretical frameworks that is used, apart from cultural heritage and revitalization, are performance and nostalgia.
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