The Midsummer Festival
The Midsummer Festival, more than a hundred-year-old tradition in Scandinavia1 falls on June 22 or 23, when the sun will reach its highest point in the sky, to create the longest day of the year. In northern part of theScandinavia, one can see the midnight sun as the sun drops to just below the horizon and the night never reaches complete darkness.
Many places celebrate Midsummer on June 24, while in
How did and do people celebrate the festival?
Bonfires
Huge fires are built. In
Long time ago even today in some places, people would jump over the fire to not light a fire is to invite a destruction of one’s own house by fire! The fire was thought to frighten away the spirit who would avoid fire at any cost. The bigger the fire, the farther the spirits ran away. Usually it is the president of a country that lights the first fire in the early morning of the Midsummer Festival to begin the holiday celebration.The wood that’s used for the fire has been collected throughout the year, to suggest that a big harvest does not come suddenly, but bit by bit.
Flowers
Homes are decorated with wild flowers and greenery. Flowers are an important aspect of the Midsummer. A flower wreath may be hung from the ceiling, a pair of birch branches put at the front door, just to bring blessing to the house. Women wear wreaths of flowers in their hair for the day.Girls would collect to different wild flowers and place them under their pillows in hopes of dreaming their future lovers. Girls also wore wreathes and later set them afloat on rivers and lakes to find out if they would marry or not in the following year.
Midsummer was and is a popular time to wed to get married with the one beloved under the midnight sun.It was believed that on this very night ferns would open, but only the true of heart would be able to find the rare flower. It is easy to understand that people take pride in finding the ferns.