The Swedish Midsummer Celebration

June 27, 2018

The Swedish Midsummer Celebration

With the blooming flowers and warm weather that has finally come after the long winter time comes the time to celebrate Midsummer in Europe.

Being Swedish, I'll more specifically share about the Swedish Midsummer or Midsommar. Midsommar used to on June 24th, but it now varies from the 20th to the 26th of June (and it’s always on a Saturday). The Swedes don't actually celebrate on the day of Midsommar, but on Midsummer's eve, called Midsommarafton.

Midsommarafton is an important national celebration in Sweden. It is celebrated all over Sweden – well, it is actually not celebrated so much all the way up North because it's still cold and there's not so much greenery at that time up there. Hence, for my mom who's from the far North of Sweden, Midsummer was never something she particularly celebrated – that is, until this year, when I made my family celebrate Midsommar.

Midsommarafton originally comes from pagan festivities celebrating the summer solstice and it is still to this day centered around nature, hence it’s celebration in the countryside.

Midsommarafton activities:

Weaving flower crowns, called midsommarkrans (midsummer crowns)
Raising the maypole, called midsommarstång (midsummer pole) or majstång (May pole)
Dancing in a ring around the midsommarstång (while singing a goofy song about frogs)
Eating herring and potatoes

This year was the first I’ve celebrated Midsommar. Although we live in Canada, since we are Swedish, celebrating Midsommar is a perfect way to do some activities around nature, have a fulfilling weekend and enjoy some family time – and it makes nice memories too!

We may not have a Midsommarstång to raise, but I still found ways to make Midsummer special – we ate waffles with jam and whipped cream, I made flower crowns from flowers and leave clippings I had collected, I put on some old Swedish songs on Spotify, and I wore my mom's tornedalsdräkt, a regional folk costume from Torne Valley (Sweden) – called Tornedalen in Swedish.

Midsommar celebration in 2018, wearing my mom's traditional clothing.

How to make flower crowns:

Real midsommarkransar are braided with the stems of the flowers. It being my first attempt to make flower crowns, I decided to opt for a simpler technique, which is to use a wire. I used iron wires so that I could easily shape the head band while having a solid enough wire for the ring to keep its shape.

Tools you'll need:

Pincers (or scissors)
Wire (iron or copper)
Masking tape

Step 1:

Collect flowers from your garden, or wildflowers around your home, take clippings of leaves you like or from flowering bushes and trees, collect branches, wild grass, etc.

Step 2:

Loop the wire once around your head to decide on what length to make the head band. Keep it 2-3 inches longer than the perimeter of your head.

Step 3:

Once you’ve find the size of wire you want, cut it, join the extremities together and twist them to the head band, as shown on the following pictures.

Step 4:

Cover the extremities of the wire with tape so that they stay properly fixed.

Step 5:

Slightly bend the loop as needed to make the head band flat.

Step 6:

Cover the ring with your freshly collected flowers, leaves and branch clippings by taping the stems to the head band, as shown in the picture below.

Tip 1: start with big flowers, then add leaves and branches to fill empty spots and, finally, add some more volume by adding little flowers, wild grass, etc.
Tip 2: have a theme for your flower crown (forest, prairies, wildflowers, etc.) and go for colours that go well together