SWEDEN’S LONGEST DAY

In the middle of the summer far up north in Scandinavia the days grow longer and longer and people get ready for a party. Known in Sweden as ‘Midsommar,” this mid-summer holiday, celebrated some time between June 19th and 24th, marks the days of the year with the most daylight, the pagan celebration of the coming of summer and, not insignificantly, the beginning of the school vacation. Swedish Midsummer celebrations include dances around a maypole (a “midsommarstång,” or “midsommar pole”) wrapped in greens. Also, Swedish tradition dictates that on the eve of midsummer unmarried girls pick seven kinds of flowers, jump over seven roundpole fences, then put the flowers under their pillows while they sleep. That way they’ll dream about their future spouse.