Starts with the making of the ‘blomsterkrans’ (flower circle), to be worn by the female species!
Use a soft, bendy branch, such as a young birch branch, with or without leaves. Bend it into a circle shape to fit the head of the female, and tie with string…
Collect some small bunches of flowers, and start to tie these on together at the stalk, with string, on to the birch branch…
Continue to tie on flowers until whole circle is covered…
Alternatively you can lay birch branches in a line, tie together, and then tie on flowers, and tie into a circle afterwards.
Here are a few of our flower bearers…
- Maya wearing one, bearing another..
Side view
Back view
Alfie (enthusiastic waving gets in the way!)
Anna
Me
My husband
The next step, is to hope for a hot sunny day, find a big green field (we chose Tyresta National Park) , to either have a picnic (pickled herring, boiled potatoes and strawberries are a must) on a big blanket, or to help get the ‘midsommarstång’ (midsummer pole) ready, by tying branches of birch all over it, and then picking flowers to insert in to it…
Then comes the raising of the midsummer pole - of which the tall pole, with a circle at each side, is said to be a symbol of fertility!
If you look closely, you can see Richard at the front helping to raise the pole…
And then the music, the singing, and the dancing begins – preferably starting with a song about small frogs, with lots of grown-ups taking part in the actions (ears and tails anyone?)…
Ending with a long line of dancing people circling the field….
Of course, you could always just stick to a little football…!
Happy Midsummer Everyone!
I have been waiting all morning for this! Yaaaaaay! Thank you so much for sharing Midsummer celebration with your family.
Made my day!