On June 20th we celebrated Midsommar here in Sweden! Since I have been gone travelling around Europe since then (those posts will come later, I promise) I am finally just getting around to writing about the midsommar holiday now.
Midsommar is pretty self explanatory I think. Mid is of course middle, and well sommar is summer. So this is the middle of the summer when the longest day of the year falls on. And yes it is light the whole night out, and has been since the end of April/beginning of May. However now you can notice it start to get a little darker around 2/3 am.
Just like every other holiday, Swedes celebrate on the “afton” or eve, Midsommar’s afton was the 20th, and Midsommar’s day was the 21st of June. On the Thursday (19th) my host parents took me down to a house they have in the mountains in a small village called Orsa. Here we would celebrate Midsommar. It was about a 5 hour drive, so typical me I slept most of the way. We arrived just before dinner and took it easy for the rest of the night.
(Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)
On Friday, or the eve of Midsommar, we began by going to watch a running/biking Marathon, then went home for lunch and a nap, and then we made the ever so famous “blomster krans” or flower crowns. I have seen these since before I even came to Sweden, and I always thought they were so cool, so this may have been my favourite part of Midsommar. With a little help from my host mom, I made my own and decorated my crown. You then wear the crowns to the evening Midsommar celebration. The evening celebration consists of a parade of people carrying the Midsommar pole (maypole) down the street to the location where it will be placed.
(Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)
Once the parade passes you, you join in with the parade and then once we reached the location we watched as like 30 men tried to lift the pole. After some difficulties, it was finally secured, and we were ready for the celebrations to begin! There is live music, but it is most popular for people young and old to dance around the pole. And also most typical to dance to a special song called små grodorna which translates to small frogs. You literally dance like frogs around the pole, holding hands with complete strangers which is something you would NEVER EVER expect a swede to do considering they can’t even sit beside each other on public transportation. We didn’t stay very long at the celebration because it was freezing cold, like only +6, and back at home in Åre it snowed on Midsommar. So much for a summer celebration right? Oh Sweden!
(Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)
We spent the rest of the weekend, just relaxing, visiting a lot of my host mom’s friends and family, eating a lot of food, and a little bit of sight seeing. We drove back up north on Monday, and I had one day to wash all of my clothes and pack as I was off on my eurotour on Tuesday. I was quite pressed for time but it all worked out 🙂
I think that Midsommar was one of my favourite Swedish traditions/holidays just because it is so different from anything you would find in North America and it is so old. Also to sum up my views of Midsommar, it is a lot of food, A LOT and I mean A LOOOT of alcohol, friends, family and good times. Such a super relaxing weekend enjoyed by all!
I tried to keep this one short, but look soon to find some posts about my eurotour!
Not long now Canada!
xx Jessie
Swedish Experiences 