Glad Midsommar!
For this most famous of Swedish holidays, we took the train up to Falun, then drove out to the summer house of Familjen Lehto in Gulleråsen (look it up!).
I think we shall take it one at a time.
Midsommar lunch was relatively traditional, starting with silltårta (herring pie) and snaps. A perfect halloumi sallad was kindly prepared for me, as well--I could have eaten all of it. Halloumi is a problem for me...Then älg (moose) in a really incredible porter sauce, as well as potatoes, of course. With a beer local to the extended family on the west coast.
Followed by Swedish strawberries with lemon, sugar and vanilla ice cream!
Then it was off to Gulleråsen to drop off the unnecessaries and head to Boda Gammalgård. This is a heritage site of sorts, a collection of old houses and objects traditional to the area. Boda is part of Dalarna, one of the areas of Sweden that holds its traditions most dear, which we know is saying a lot. It's where those little red wooden horses come from, and is famous for the Leksands knäckebröd I'm such a fanatic about, as well as various other highly identifiable Swedish Things. It reminds me of New England, and Boda Gammalgård reminds me of Plimoth Plantation without the interpreters (and where the houses are original), or a bit of the historic house I used to live in.
So, of course, this pulled at many heartstrings, especially with the great numbers of people in folkdräkt, or traditional dress that is specific to the village or area you (or your parents, etc) grew up in.
Below, the woman to the right is wearing Bodadräkt, but I don't know about the women to the left.
Eriks Mamma has her grandmother's Bodadräkt, and it turns out it fits me perfectly.....but we didn't have enough of the pieces (shoes, stockings, etc...hers are too personal and special for me to wear) to be able to participate...I was rather jealous...Maybe next year? There are all these great little insider things to know about the outfits, which I am still learning...some bits are for högtid, which translates literally to "high time", but of course means more like "the most special occasions". Sometimes your apron faces one way, sometimes another, and what is interesting to me about the Bodadräkt is that it has a beautiful red, yellow, orange and green horizontal striped swath of fabric sewn into the front of the skirt, almost mimicking an apron, and you COVER this with a plain dark piece of wool for less festive occasions (I hope I will be corrected if I'm misinforming).
We sat and watched the procession from the "porch" of a 17th-century building. These people have just built the floral garland to wrap around the Midsommar pole, and accordion and fiddle players lead the village women who are carrying it to the site.
There was no shortage of the cutest children you have ever seen in tiny versions of their parents' folkdräkt, as seen above.
And pretty Swedish musicians...
Here you can see many women in Bodadräkt, and then another outfit I can't identify (the woman with the vertical stripes), but it's probably relatively local.
Familjen Lehto sitter och väntar.
Beautiful, complex melodies accompanied the wrapping of the garland and the raising of the pole, which takes a surprisingly long but pleasant time. The man on the far right had some incredible leather garters and belt/waistband/possible 18th century weightlifting aid.
The pole is lifted through great group effort, including many groans and cheers from the audience as folkdräkt-clad men used these cross-poles to lift it a few feet, then moved a few feet down and did it all over again.
As we drove around the countryside, you see that each pole is decorated somewhat differently, and are of varying sizes, but this one was rather impressive and beautiful.
A musically obsessed friend told me much about nyckelharpor before I came to Sweden, and I got to see a few in action at this celebration! See a performance of a baptism waltz here. Beautiful! Below is a picture of one of the girls playing accompaniment to rings of children and their adults dancing around the pole. Best known: Små Grodorna, or "Little Frogs", where everyone hops around saying how weird frogs look without tails or ears.
Pretty adorable.
Next on the itinerary:
Party! A friend of Erik's friend has a house within walking distance of his, and she had a wonderful big midsommar party. We talked a lot (in English) about language and learning Swedish and how awesome it is to have big dinner parties that are a sort of pot-luck, which we don't do hardly as often as they do here. The welcoming drink was something with rhubarb, I believe, and boy was it delicious and tart. We proceeded to eat lots of wonderful healthy food and drank lots of wine and snaps. As often happens, the tables were taken down one by one so that there was more after-dinner mingling space, and I got to talk a lot with almost everyone. Some I had met when they were in living in or visiting New York, and I was seeing them for the first time in Sweden. It's rather nice to know people, especially when you are the girlfriend some people haven't met. Everyone is always so welcoming, but it makes going to parties exciting instead of nervous-making.
Plus the boxes of wine help.
Magic extending table.
Along with the little frogs and the aquavit, another famous and beloved tradition is to pick 7 different types of flowers and sleep with them under your pillow. Whoever you dream about will be the person you marry. For the record--didn't actually put them under the pillow. But I did have a nice time picking lots of beautiful Dala flowers on our way home.
Saturday and Sunday reports later....this is already becoming a short novel. And we have to go on a picnic, it's insanely gorgeous outside.
Puss!
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