Jewels at opening of Swedish Riksdag Archived Message
Posted by Marianne  on October 3, 2014, 2:19 am, in reply to "Pearl jewels at the opening of the Swedish Riksdag"
Arthur, you wrote "As the date of the opening ceremony usually takes place on the anniversary date of the death of King Gustav VI Adolf, it is customary for the royal ladies to wear black, or black and white, outfits for the ceremony - possibly also a discreet reminder of the former black court dresses of the Swedish Queens and Princesses. This year, the ceremony was delayed, probably because of the recent general elections...
However, the reason why the Swedish Parliament (and many other European/Scandinavian Parliaments as well)are officially declared open around this time of year (mid to late September) has nothing to do with the death of the Old King.
At the time of his death legislation for the reforms were indeed withheld out of respect for his longtime service and everybody acknowledged his duty for his country but it stops there....
September is in many countries the fresh start after the summerholidays for many and that goes for parliament too (and schools as well  ).
The fact that the royal ladies wear black has more to do with the well-known fact that when attending official events (concerts/going to church etc) ladies often dress in black and wear pearls and one might evrn think it is a hint to old fashioned Court-Dresses, however Queen Silvia changed these back for her ladies-in-waiting to dark blue, so....
Sorry to be off-topic here but since you included your interpretation in your text, besides the splendid pics for which I thank you, I thought I'd mention it here, after consulting a Swedish friend/expert 
On the GREMB I had posted a link to the last old fashioned Swedish opening, including ladies-in-waiting with tiaras:
http://members3.boardhost.com/Oranjes/msg/1412058676.html
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