Midsommar in Sweden

Apart from Christmas, Midsummer, Midsommar, is the most important holiday in the Swedish calendar.  And for some, the very most important.  The successful Midsommar never-ending lunch party formula involves flowers in your hair, dancing around a pole, singing songs while drinking unsweetened, flavored schnapps and downing a whole load of pickled herring, still served with delightful new potatoes, chives and sour cream.  All in all, a grand day out!

Given Scandinavia's long, dark winters, it's not surprising that the arrival of summer is a big deal throughout the Nordic countries.  In Sweden, Midsommar's Eve is one of the most important days of the year, rivaling Christmas with its festive spirit and traditions.  Traditionally, Midsommar was celebrated on June 24th, the feast day of St. John the Baptist, but the holiday has its roots in a pre-Christian Solstice festival.  Rather than trying to stamp out such pagan festivals, the early Catholic Church found it useful to associate them with Christian celebrations.  Biblical sources suggest that St. John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus, meaning that his birthday could be equally conveniently associated with the pagan festival of Midsommar.

There were many festivals in Sweden this weekend.  Ljusne is fairly far from cities that would have really big celebrations, so Marion and I took the Hoffman kids to a nearby village, Maråker, to celebrate.  Here are some of the pictures from our outing!

 Maypole

Pretty ladies and girls with flower wreaths

Alisha and a friend 

There were lots of games for kids and adults

Yari and Erik (left) and Enno and Alisha (right) at the fishing booth 

This was a Nordic Cross Country Ski Race for a team.  There were two teams and one team never moved....the other team got moving but one of the team members fell out...Enno (red shirt) jumped in his place and they won!!

Here is the adult race....they really had teamwork!!

In the end, we went for a hot dog....in the US we complain that the bun is always too big for the dog, unless you buy longer buns....well in Sweden, it is the other way around!

Later we went to another Camping Ground, Stenö and the boys and Marion played mini-golf and Alisha and I went to the horseback riding event. 

 Look at this really neat old Scandinavian boat.