Glad Midsommer / Happy Midsummer
Today is one of the most anticipated days of the year for all of Scandinavia. The longest day of the year and the celebration of the light is the most celebrated day in Sweden, Norway and Denmark ever over Christmas. Scandinavians celebrate the summer solstice (the longest day of the year) with festivals full of music, dancing, lights, flowers, pickled herring, aquavit, and lovely girls running around with crowns of flowers in their hair.
According to Midsummer Festival website, “the summer solstice celebration has its roots in pre-Christian practices and is a day when the spirits of nature join the human community to rejoice in the long days of summer. Midsummer was originally a fertility festival with many customs and rituals associated with nature and with the hope for a good harvest in autumn.”
Traditionally Midsummer is June 21st, but the festivities usually occur on the Saturday between June 20th and June 26th. There are tons of festivals going on around the world. Our family celebrates this day with a very large traditional Swedish party, full of snaps, songs and sill (herring). We will even put up a large maypole covered with leaves, flowers and ribbon. It’s by far our favorite night of the year!
Glad Midsommar (Happy Midsummer) to all!
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 5:20 pm and is filed under traditions.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 17th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Thanks for letting us join your family’s midsummer celebration. It sounds like a very special event with lots of food, dancing and songs with family and friends. Sounds like my kind of a party there.
Thanks for the pictures too!
July 17th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
So much beautiful faces in one blog post!
I never knew that my birthday this year coincided with such a festive occasion. I know its rather later but Happy Midsummer to you and your family.