In this part of the world we celebrate a holiday called Midsummer. It’s second only to Christmas and the country virtually shuts down for two days, from late afternoon tomorrow (Midsummer Eve) to Sunday morning (Saturday is called Midsummer day).
Anyone who owns a summer cottage or knows someone who owns a summer cottage heads out to them and spends the weekend there. Well everyone doesn’t own a summer cottage but there are a number of midsummer festivals usually held at some beach or lake somewhere. So celebration of Midsummer is almost mandatory.
Well this year I’m working the morning shift at Midsummer Day and Sunday, well somebody got to keep the country running while all the people are out partying in the middle of nowhere. So we’ll probably take a few short tours with the boat, maybe drive around a bit to check out the parties. It’s one way to spend Midsummer =).
Happy Midsummer to you!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI finally found you and have been missing our e-conversations! Had to sort through old emails to find the new blog address. Sorry!
When we were in Finland we went to Torlef and Gunnevi's cabin...I remember there were big branches from trees beside the front door. And when the tree branches were totally dried out, it meant something. I don't remember what!?!?
Hope you get to party with friends this weekend!!!
Happy Midsummer to you to and welcome back, it’s always nice to read your comments =).
ReplyDeleteI really didn’t know what the dry branches meant so I looked it up. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything conclusive. People set up the branches (around here it’s always young birches) because people have always done so. It seems to be somewhat tied to local tradition and since its pagan in origin a lot of the old knowledge has been forgotten. Well one of the few things Christian about this holiday is that the Church tried and failed (because it was too popular) to eradicate the holiday in the 18th century. So they renamed it to St. John the Baptists Day so it would at least have a Christian name. In some local places the holiday has carried the name of old pagan fertility Gods into modern times.
Well what I found was that they used to give the dried branches to cattle on a church holiday later, like Christmas so that the cattle would prosper, grow strong and give birth to new cattle. Another explanation about the birches besides the front door was a celebration to fertility. Yet another thing they did was that the put the leaves from the birches at midsummer on the fields so the crop would grow and give a large harvest. The last explanation about the birches I found is that on midsummer certain wells in the forest have special powers. And people would gather at these wells to make sacrifices like coins and food for prosperity. So to cleans the well and its visitors they would use a gate of birch branches for the visitors to walk trough before making their sacrifices.
Well we took a tour with the boat (we are borrowing Nina’s fathers boat) last night and we went for coffee at a restaurant in the archipelago only reachable by boat or snowmobile in the winter. We later ate at Hesburger (it’s a McDonald’s clone). We are party animals ;-P.