Svenskarnas Dag - Swedish Midsommar Festival

Up until June 2005, the summer solstice, or midsummer, did not mean much to me. But at that time, I was studying in Hamburg, Germany, which is so far north that the days are very long in the peak of the summer. For example, at this time of year, the sun does not set until almost 10:00, and it rises again before 5:00. Therefore, there are only a few hours in the night during which it is completely dark.

While I was studying in Hamburg, a good friend of mine from my exchange program and I talked about riding on a boat from Germany to Norway during the summer solstice. We discovered how expensive such a journey would be and decided to try to ride our bikes around Hamburg from sundown to sunrise instead. It was during this bike adventure that I discovered this three-headed paper-mache monster on top of a dumpster near the U-Bahn Emilienstrasse. Needless to say, I hid it in some bushes in a nearby park and picked it up the next morning and took it home on the train. It lived on the dorm of my balcony for a while until it moved onto David's balcony.

However, the three-headed monster is not the focus of this blog entry. Several weeks ago, I discovered an amazing You Tube video made by IKEA Germany. It was a commercial banned by the Swedish HQ because it makes fun of Swedes and their beloved Midsommar festival. After seeing this video, I was determined to attend some type of midsummer celebration: IKEA Commercial.

Minnesota being the Swedish capital of the U.S., I knew I would be able to find an event near Minneapolis. I discovered that the local Swedish organizations put on an annual Midsommar festival, and I decided to attend. To my dismay, the festival, held in Minneapolis' Minnehaha Park, was much tamer than the IKEA commercial. However, it was still an interesting event with plenty of Minnesota Swedes as well as regular Swedish Swedes.

                            The ceremonial raising of the Midsommar pole.

 

 
              Some traditional Swedish dress from some region of Sweden.

             Super Swedish family. Please use disparaging language with me if I
                  ever dress myself and family members in matching clothing.

                      More traditional dress - in 80 degrees, nonetheless!

                    The American-Swedish Institute making flower crowns.

                                                           The majstang                                                        

                                 Hej hej! Although I certainly feel like it,
                                 I am not the official Midsommar Queen.

                                              Crown put together by me...

                                   ...and a dress the color of the Swedish flag