Swedish Midsummer for Dummies

From Sweden.se “Schools are out and nature has burst into life. It seems like the sun never sets. In fact, in the north of Sweden it doesn’t, and in the south only for an hour or two. This calls for celebration! Let’s round up friends and family for the most Swedish of our traditions: Midsummer.”

Swedes like the world to be well-ordered, so Midsummer Eve is always a Friday http://t.co/6lPFEoN5yt — Sweden.se (@swedense) June 19, 2013

#Finland is slowing down for #Midsummer, and so are we. The embassy is closed tomorrow for Midsummer's Eve. Hauskaa juhannusta! — Finnish Embassy UK (@finlandinuk) June 20, 2013

From Visit Finland “Lighting bonfires and bathing in saunas are two of the most typical traditions in Midsummer celebrations. Barbecuing, fishing and boating have later become standard Midsummer pastimes while enjoying cottage life. In the old days, Midsummer spells were cast, many of which had to do with hopes of increasing fertility and finding a future spouse. Midsummer was also a popular time for weddings.”

Credit Leo-setä

Midsummer Night is the lightest of the year and was long considered a magical night, as it was the best time for telling people’s futures. — Sweden.se (@swedense) June 20, 2013

According to Sweden's Official Website List of necessary items 1. Wooden poles (one longer, one shorter) for the pole 2. Leaves, flowers, fresh twigs or twine 3. Potatoes, pickled herring (see recipe below), dill, strawberries and whipped cream 4. Snaps (or vodka if you cannot find any) 5. One songbook with drinking songs and one with midsummer songs 6. Sweets for the kids 7. Hay cart for children's hayride 8. Music player 9. Lottery tombola

What really goes on

From The Local Odd Swedish Midsummer traditions: If you were wondering how the usually shy Swedish people manage to work up the nerve to go on a frog-imitation rampage in broad daylight, it's largely due to the alcohol. And the alcohol drinking also comes with it's fair share of drinking songs. For the uninitiated, Små grodorna (literally: The Small Frogs) is a Swedish Midsummer musical act that sees Swedes hopping around a maypole while singing about the frogs' anatomy in great and rather humiliating detail. Never seen a drunk Swede before? Well get ready for carnage. The good news is that most people are so happy in the summer that it's a mild-mannered kind of carnage, really.

...and then there's this

Credit Ralf Johann

If you can't get to Sweden, maybe you can get to IKEA From The Gothamist The annual feast marks the Swedish summer solstice, which apparently hits about a week before ours; to celebrate, the IKEA in Red Hook is putting out a Linnmon table (or Björkudden, or Glivarp, if they're feeling fancy) full of regional goodies.

Despite all of this goodness, not everyone is a fan: From The Local Six reasons to hate Midsummer in Sweden Why, WHY does every Swedish holiday require one to down copious helpings of pickled herring? No matter how many pieces of crisp bread or newly boiled 'fresh potatoes' you have with it, sill is still slimy and sour. Isn't it enough to have one holiday a year where we look back and inevitably feel let-down by all that wasn't? Not unlike New Year's, Midsummer is so wrapped up in people's idealized images of how things are supposed to be that it's nearly impossible to come away feeling like the experience lived up to pre-show billing, no matter how much alcohol is consumed.