On the winter solstice in Göteborg, Sweden, the sun rose at 8:55 am and set at 3:26 pm – only 6.5 hours of sunlight.
In comparison, this past Saturday, June 22, we celebrated the summer solctice, and the Swedish holiday of Midsummer when the sun rose at 4:14 am and set at 10:16pm – 18 hours of sunlight. That is 3x as much light than the winter. And if there is one thing Swedes know how to do well, it is enjoy daylight.
Emily and I were invited to celebrate midsummer in the town of Viken, Skäne with the Hagman family. We met the Hagman’s because Axel, the middle son, will be starting at Midd in the fall. The world is a small place if you are a Middlebury alum.
Viken is located in southern Sweden, only 5km across the Sound from Denmark. (To read about our adventure to visit the Danish Prince, Hamlet, read Emily’s blogpost.) Viken used to be a small fishing town, and from the picture below you can see that it has a beautiful windmill that keeps guard over all the local residents.
To give you a little background on the epicness of a Swedish Midsummer, here’s an article from the Boston Globe about summer solstice celebrations. (Thanks, Ray Coish, for sending it along!). Here’s an excerpt from the article which perfectly sums up our weekend.
The Northern Europeans don’t take sunlight for granted, and Midsummer Night festivals proliferate from Shakespeare’s homeland north to the Arctic Circle. Sweden’s official website has a helpful video explaining the “holiday devoted to eating, drinking, dancing, and assorted pagan rituals, second only in significance to Christmas.” The giddy Swedes head for the countryside to gobble pickled herring, hop through the “little frogs” dance and frolic in the rain; “No midsummer is complete without a sudden downpour,” we learn.
The central part of the Midsummer celebratiosn is the Midsummer pole/tree. It is a long cross with two wreaths hanging from it. We helped the Hagman’s build their midsummer tree, covering it with green leaves and making leaves from red roses, white daisies, and blue cornflowers.
Once the tree was erected, we danced, we sang, and we played games. Here are a couple of photos from the town’s celebration of Midsummer, and one of us and family friends doing the rocket dance around the pole.
One of the classic dances is små grodorna, or the little frog dance.
No Midsummer is complete without lots and lots of eating. Kristina, the Hagman mother, made a wonderful smörgåsbord of traditional herring, sausages, eggs, new potatoes, and delicious delicious foods. The midsummer meal is accompanied with akvavit, a spirit flavored with spices or herbs. I went with the lemon flavor, but the most common flavorings are Caraway or Dill. Here is my overfloring plate.
At the end of the day, we all saluted the Swedish flag as it was lowered. Swedish law says that everyone who salutes the flag must wear a cap, so in true good spirit, we all donned various funny hats, from rice paddy hats, to aviation caps, and knight’s armor. (Normally Carl Hagman wears a naval cap when lowering the flag, but midsummer is a day for good humor and celebration).
We ended the day by picking 7 different flowers. Once you pick your flowers, you are supposed to sleep with them under you pillow, and the legend is that you will have dreams about your dream man.
And no midsummer is complete without intermittent rain showers, as the article says. Every couple of hours, we would be interrupted with rain, and have to bring all the food and games indoors. Once the weather was good, back out we would go and back and forth all day.
Emily and I were so grateful to the Hagman family for being included in such a fun Swedish tradition. We ate, we danced, we sang, and sang the little frog song.
What better way to celebrate the longest day of the year?