It is also a holiday we had missed every year so far... The first year we were in the US, the second we were in Bergen. We hadn't made any plans as we had been so busy, but one of our friends, Fredrik, invited us to his house in the small town of Löberöd to celebrate Midsommar with his family and friends (including Patrik who I worked with and Martin, who I played online with).
We arrived around 10:30, met everyone and then headed down to the town center for the raising of the Maypole (majstång).
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| Preparing the Maypole |
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| Going up! |
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| The Maypole goes up |
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| Dancing around the Maypole |
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| Dancing |
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| Tom and the Maypole |
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| Us at the Maypole |
After the Maypole was up, a local band played some traditional songs, including Små grodorna (small frogs) and everyone danced around the Maypole. Then there was a lottery draw and a candy rain - sweets thrown in the air for the children to catch.
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| Drawing the lottery |
When we finished at the park, we headed back to Fredrik's for a traditional Midsommer meal, of potatoes, salmon, herring, cheese pie, meatballs and of course snaps!
The food was great the Aquavit (the usual drink for snaps) was not quite as great, but we had a lot of fun singing the snaps songs.
The kids had a great time playing football, tennis and darts as well as making bubbles. We also watched some football (soccer) on TV and it alternated between beautiful sun and raining, making it traditional Swedish Midsummer!
After, we had another Swedish midsummer tradition - Strawberries and cream and sticky chocolate tart. And later for dinner we had a BBQ followed by an amazingly good cheesecake. We also had time for a quick quiz, which my team (well, mostly Fredrik) won.
Plenty of good food, laughs and an overall fun day. It was a great way to celebrate our first and last Midsummer in Sweden. Thanks to our hosts and everyone who came and made it a great day! We arrived at 10:30 and got home at midnight!
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