Midsommar in Sweden

We ate pickled herring last weekend!

Yes, we've been slow to post about our adventures at the Swedish Midsommar holiday because it deserves such a detailed recap. And, quite frankly, the two-day celebration was exhausting, but so much fun.

So what is Midsommar exactly, besides the middle of the summer (or the first day of the summer in America)? Midsommar is a pre-Christian holiday to celebrate the summer solstice. It's a bigger celebration in the Nordic countries than in mainland Europe, which is likely due to the exaggerated length of the summer days. It seems the Church tried to Christianize it, but didn't have as much luck as they did with the winter solstice. Our Swedish teacher mentioned that the Midsommar traditions in the times of the vikings involved a lot of drinking and resulted in "fertility parties." Funny translation, but you get the point. She also mentioned that this resulted in a lot of fatherless children being born every March. The superstitions of magic and fertility continued to be associated with the festivals over the years, but today the festival is known mostly for silly singing, dancing and lots of drinking.

Scott came home to tell me that we had plans for Midsommar after attending a work happy hour and dinner event a few weeks ago. We were invited to join his co-worker, Per, and Per's wife, Katarina, at their cabin in the Archipelago, along with a dozen of their friends and family members.

Even the trip to the cabin was a real treat! It was arranged that we would be picked up in a boat by Bjorn, another party-goer who gave us a great water tour of the places we've only seen from land thus far. We passed through the lock and dam in record speed (we were told), so we took extra time to take the scenic route through a gorgeous area of town.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. Warm and sunny with a slight breeze. Plus good company, we had the perfect ingredients for a beautiful Midsommar.

While docking at the cabin on Storholmen, we were greeted by the sight of a gorgeous cabin on a hillside of plants and wildflowers. The table down by the water was already set for lunch, and we helped unload the boat and introduced ourselves as guests continued to arrive. (Meeting two Annas, two Pers and two Bjorns made remembering all of the names a little easier!)

We sat down to our Midsommar lunch a bit unsure of what we were getting ourselves into. The meal consisted of three types of pickled herring (mustard, onion and Archipelago flavors), fresh potatoes, boiled with dill and seasoned with sour cream and chives, and knacka bread (flat and crisp like a cracker) with butter and cheese. Honestly, I think we were both pleasantly surprised to find that the pickled herring was not as bad as it sounds - we even LIKED it! The entire meal was delicious, in fact. To drink, everyone was poured a small glass of beer, as well as tall shot glasses filled with a traditional liquor called snaps. This particular bottle of snaps had a very mild flavor, perhaps most similar to a spiced rum like Captain Morgan, but the taste was not too strong, even though the alcohol hits you quickly. The snaps was good as well, although it is a good thing we sipped it slowly, because there were many songs sung throughout the meal - each followed by a shot/sip of snaps!

Following lunch, we joined a steady parade of people marching toward the communal Midsommar celebration. The community gets together to cover a Maypole with greenery and flowers, then raises the Maypole to dance around. A band plays traditional songs and people sing and dance around the pole. The songs are comparable to the chicken dance and the hokey pokey as far as the lyrics and dances. Our companions commented that Swedes are known to be extremely reserved, then once a year they all show up at a gathering place and do silly dances with strangers. They all think it's ridiculous, but since it's okay to loosen up for one day a year they all take advantage of the atmosphere. It was obvious that everyone was having a great time.

The rest of our time on the island was spent socializing, playing games, being spoiled with incredible meals and tipping back a few glasses of wine. (There are more great pictures of the festivities in our Picassa Web albums.) We went out in the midnight twilight to sing a ghostly song in front of the "haunted castle" on the island. Turns out the "ghosts" were throwing a pretty decent party on the grounds of the run down castle, so we kept our distance, did our best to avoid the flocking teenagers, sang our song, and went on our way.

All in all it was an excellent weekend. We are still pretty excited that we were able to celebrate this holiday with a bunch of Swedes, and couldn't thank our host and hostess enough. It was so much better than watching from a distance.