I’ve been putting off writing this post for awhile because the age old adage “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” comes to mind. Only my version is “What happens at a Midsommar party stays at a Midsommar party because I’ll never be able to accurately capture it in a blog post.” Basically you all need to come to Sweden one summer and experience it for yourselves.

Midsommar is kind of a big deal and Sweden’s YouTube channel put together a hilarious little tutorial for all of us newbies:

While we didn’t dance like frogs around a Maypole, we did play a game called the Pregnant Snake, in which you try to beat another team in a race with tennis balls wedged between each of your fellow teammates. It wouldn’t be Midsommar if we only played one game, so we put cardboard duck bills on our faces to give ourselves tunnel vision and tried to pick colored disks off the ground. I was the butler in a game called the King and the Butler, where I moved pieces of paper for the king to step on. Our team made the mistake of having me, the short person, moving the paper for the tall person. Finally, we also played the Swedish version baseball (shout out to the CM Rays softball team!)

All that playing really works up an appetite, so then we ate everything: potatoes, sandwich cake, herring, meatballs, some sort of cheese quiche, and my ultimate fave- prinskorv (prince sausage). During dinner, everyone sang songs and then took shots of Jäger, aquavit, vodka, etc. I took what I like to call “baby shots” which are essentially the tiniest sip known to man because I’m not the young gal I used to be and hangovers that start at 10 p.m. while you’re still out are real. My college friends reading this are probably shaking their heads in disbelief thinking, “Who are you and what have you done with C. Rose??” Anyways, these songs happened approximately every two minutes and were outrageously hilarious. I have a tendency to be a little gullible so when Christopher told me one song included the lyric “It’s hard to take a shot with a cock in your mouth” I thought, man, he really thinks he’s pulling a fast one on me. Alas, those were the actual lyrics.

We all had a great time eating, drinking and hanging out the rest of the night. I’d been looking forward to this party for so long and I had the best time! When asked by a friend if the U.S. had a holiday similar to Midsommar, I could only think of the Fourth of July, except when we get drunk we also blow stuff up. We decided it was a pretty American way to celebrate. It was weird seeing everyone celebrate the Fourth but if I have to miss that holiday, I will gladly replace it with an awesome Midsommar celebration!

As if this post wasn’t already interesting enough, I’ll leave you with this video of some Swedes from Caffeine Creations trying to make a midsommar cake whilst hooked up to an electrotherapy machine:

 

 

Every year on April 30th, Sweden welcomes springtime by celebrating Valborg. In communities all over Sweden, Valborg is celebrated with speeches, choirs singing songs about spring and a huge bonfire. May 1st is a national holiday (the equivalent to America’s Labor Day) so partying following the bonfire can go late into the night.

Last Wednesday night, we went to a nearby park to celebrate my first Valborg. There were so many people! It started off with a woman giving a speech (Christopher kindly translated) about the park and the community (the park is getting toilets!) and the origins of Valborg. She said it was tradition the Swedes adopted from the Germans hundreds of years ago. Next, the choir sang a few songs and another man gave a lengthy speech. Finally, they lit the fire! From the pile of branches and leaves that were gathered from the park, I assumed it would be an average sized fire but Google Image told me otherwise. I have no idea how a controlled fire became as large as it did as quickly as it did, but it was awesome!

After we got home, I wanted to do some more research on the origins of Valborg because I’m a huge nerd at heart. Of course, there are conflicting stories. Some sources say Valborg predates any German holiday and was actually derived from Viking fertility celebrations and the bonfires were used to scare off witches and evil spirits. A more practical use of the fire was also to scare of predators as livestock were let out to graze.

However, the German roots are quite prevalent in everything I read. According to German folklore, Walpurgisnacht was believed to be a night when witches gathered at Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains (A German tradition of sorcerers and witches meeting on May Day were recorded during the 15th through 17th centuries). Alas, the day was Christianized and named after the eve of the feast day of St. Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Germany. Regardless of the actual origins, it was so cool to participate in a Swedish tradition knowing that people have celebrated in a similar way for hundreds of years.

The welcoming of spring in Sweden at the conclusion of April was somewhat symbolic for me. April was full of transitions for me; the longest and the shortest month ever! It seems like years ago, but I began April living with one of my closest friends and attending a Bastille concert with some other wonderful friends in Minneapolis. I drove over 800 miles with my mom back to Ohio and spent some time quality time with friends and family, even my sister in Boston. Finally, I moved to Sweden to be with my wonderful Christopher and time really started to fly. I do miss my friends and family (and Chipotle), but I’m having an amazing time and embracing the change!