Sorry if I had not been online half as much as I'd like to have been on Friday/Saturday, it's just that it was time for the Midsommar celebrations again in Sweden. I wrote about it last year and Eileen kindly posted a history of the celebrations a few days ago. So how was it this year, well.. great. We celebrated it in the same location as last year, a friend's farm house in the countryside. Everything was very traditional and anything you read about in the link to the history above we probably did. Dinner started at about 7pm and consisted mainly of potato, fermented herring (sill), meatballs, salad, egg. Every few minutes or so everyone sings a traditional Midsommar Swedish song (the songs are printed out on a sheet for dummies like me) followed by a raising of glasses/beer cans and an exclamation of "Skål" ("Cheers"). A shot of schnapps is commonly downed as well after each tune. Afterwards we dressed up the Midsommar pole with greens and picked flowers and then gathered around for the traditional dances. They are quite silly but lots of fun. They mainly involve a lot of hopping like frogs, moving in and out towards the pole while at the same time holding hands and some silly spinning. It's one of those rare occasions where you can act like a kid and not feel self-consious After that we proceeded to drink into the night and this year we had a game of midnight football totally in the dark. That was great fun since I don't get much opportunity to play football these days. I'm really aching today :-x After the football we listening to one of the other people at the party play some wonderful music on her violin. It was really beautiful. All we need was a camp-fire and I could easily believe that I was in medieval times Then when it all finally got too much it was time for sleep. And sleep I did... on some bales of hay in the barn 8) In fact I got so comfortable that I kept everyone waiting in the morning while I was still in the land of nod. That is always my favourite part of Midsommar. So that was the Midsommar celebrations this year. I'm already looking forward to next year already!
So glad you had such a wonderful time Frank. Isn't it nice to 'let your hair down' once in a while and simply be yourself? :-D I would love to have been sitting watching you all play that game of football in the dark - much more entertaining that any professional match I'll bet.
