Glad midsommar ! Happy midsummer!

Midsummer, the maybe most popular of all holidays in Sweden, is here. In the northern parts of Sweden the sun will never set and even as far south as in Svångemåla, it never gets really dark. The whole of Sweden is getting ready to celebrate by eating herring, drinking snaps, sing silly songs and dance around the midsummer pole. The latter is actually a phallus symbol and this, as well as some of the dances where, for examples, the dancers pretend to be frogs are, particularly to foreigners, a bit strange. I know this for sure after having tried to explain it all to a group of students from twelve different countries on a campus in Vermont many years ago. They also seemed a bit doubtful when they were told that they could find out about their wife / husband to be by picking seven different flowers, put them under your cushion and, voila, he / she will show up in your dream! If they only know the power of midsummer!

In Svångemåla the fragrance of jasmine is getting stronger and stronger, the white peony is in full bloom, and the hop-bine has reached the top of the pole or about four and a half meter. Even more exciting is the news that Fred and Frida Fox have been successful in bringing two really cute babies to the village. I almost laugh out loud when they showed off their jump and dance show in front of the car last evening. Let us only hope that their happiness is not dependent on other parents’ offspring. :(

Glad midsommar!