My Midsummer

One of my many great memories I have from a Midsummer celebration is from when I was around 10 years old. My family and I always celebrated Midsummer together with another family and this year we had decided to celebrate at a public cite. The celebration was to take place in a big field out on the country side close to my grandfather’s cabin. We arrived at the site pretty early to make sure to get there on time, and there were so many people there! It was so crowded that we were lucky to find an area to unfold our blankets on. It’s crazy but I still remember what I wore that day. I wore a pair of blue pants combined with a skirt in the same blue color, a white tank top, a blazer in the matching blue color and orange sandals with a small black heel on them. I believe that I remember my outfit because it was my favorite outfit at the time and also looking back at it I’m embarrassed that I wore it. Anyway, back to the Midsummer celebration. So we were sitting in the grass waiting for the celebrations to begin. Us children became a little bit unease because we arrived so early and the celebrations started at a certain time so it was a bit of a wait. But then we heard someone announce that the dance was going to start in a few minutes. When we heard that we all got up and moved towards the Maypole and joined everyone else in circles around the pole. They had musicians that accompanied and decided what songs were going to be sung. And of course we jumped and sang the frog dance that you saw in the video clip. When the celebration was over we went back to our blankets and relaxed for a while. After a while we started to get hungry so we drove to my grandfather’s cabin to eat all the delicious food. We had already prepared a table outside so we started to place all the food on the table. At this time of age I didn’t like pickled hearing, but I ate some of the meatballs that my mum had made instead. The funniest thing is that I was always so amazed with the pickled hearing and I thought it looked delicious. Therefore I tasted it every time it was on the table, and every time I thought it tasted horrible. Don’t ask me why I kept trying it, but I did. Maybe that’s the reason why I now days love pickled hearing, who knows. However, there is not only the pickled herring in a jar that’s eaten at Midsummer; there is also different recipes that has the pickled herring in it. One dish that I like and that my mum usually makes is called “silltårta” (pickled herring pie). It’s delicious! She has made a number of different pickled herring pies, but she now she has found one that we all like so she tries to make it every year.

As for every Midsummer we sat around the table until midnight approached. Of course, we children didn’t sit nicely on our chairs all that time. Instead we ran around and played most of the time while the grownups sat and talked and took one, two, three, or several more snapps. When I was a child I always waited for the dessert, so when the strawberries were placed on the table I was the first one to the table. There is nothing better than a bowl of fresh strawberries and whip cream on top! This dessert is also something I believe all Swedes connect to summer. When you can eat fresh strawberries, you know it is summer. After all the excitement of dancing around the Maypole, eating the food, playing with your friends and eating strawberries you are kind of tired. Therefore around midnight my friends and I was relaxing watching a movie and fell asleep on the couch. Midsummer was at end for us children, but I’m sure that our parents stayed up for a few more hours to celebrate.