111 Cultural post 2

[malory rodriguez]

So for my final project I decided to look into depth about Sweden and how swedes interact with nature. This post I will be focusing on the festival of midsummer. So the origins of Swedish midsummer came from agrarian times in which Swedes would welcome summertime and the season of fertility. People would dress up as 'green men; and decorated their houses and farm tools with foliage and would raise maypoles to dance around. The festival being their five-week holiday by heading out to their summer homes in the country.  During Midsummer eve is always between a Friday between June 19th and 25th.Midsummer night (eve) is the lightest night of the year so it was and is considered to be a magical night and the best time to tell people's future. As usual there is a typical meal that follows in suite with a midsummer menu. Such as pickled herring, boiled new potatoes with fresh dill, sour cream and chives with some meat such as spare ribs or salmon. For desert there would be the first strawberries of summer with cream. There are many little traditions that go along with midsummer such as how young women are supposed to pick seven species of flower and lay them under their pillow and at night they will dream of their future husband. Overall it seems like a very fun time and a holiday that depends on the beauty of Swedish nature.