Today is Midsommar in Sweden, which means Dancing, Fun, Flowers, Friends and Food! Traditionally this is the day to celebrate the summer solstice. My friend Gunn says that it is thought that the water from the springs could bring good health and herbs picked at midsummer were highly potent... sound great to me! I also think that it is a day to celebrate the harvest, dance around the Maypole (to ensure a good harvest), pick summer flowers (more on that below) and have lots of fun with friends and family.
In Rattvik, where my family is from, we used to visit various raising of the Maypole with dancing and music in villages surrounding my mothers farm. We would dress up in our traditional Rattviks costume (so did my mom and dad). We made crowns with birch branches and flowers and wore them and when we were kids we even put on a summer show, we made a stage and put on skits and sang songs... so much fun! We stayed up very late because it just never seemed to get dark and had hot dogs at midnight! In the evening the girls would run out and pick seven different wildflowers in a bouquet, run around the well seven times and then go to bed (I think there may have been something else but I can't remember?). The idea was that we would dream of who we were going to marry! I loved this idea...
GlåD MIDSOMMAR!!
