Last weekend celebrations took place all over Sweden for the annual Midsommar festival. It’s my favourite time of the year. The sun shines all day and night and the whole country feels relaxed and free as everyone takes the weekend off to enjoy the solstice.
The tradition is to go out into the countryside and spend time with family and friends. To share nice food and drinks, to eat some fish and make crowns of summer flowers to wear around your head. In towns and parks you’ll find the Midsommar pole, for people to gather around to dance and sing. In the centre of Stockholm there’s a large event in the park at Skansen.
My friends and I stayed around Stockholm for Midsommar. We celebrated at the student accommodation in Lappis, just north of the city. One friend had a nice garden for everyone to gather together outside. Many trips were also taken down to the infamous Lappis Beach, where dozens of students were swimming and partying.
The Midsommar day is usually spent chilling out, playing games, going for swims and generally relaxing all day. We were celebrating with a big international group so we had a mix of traditions. We had several rounds of Flunky Ball organised by my German friends, but had a few Swedish friends to teach us and lead us in some more of the traditional parts of Midsommar too.
After the celebrations at Lappis, we went out to stay at “Osqvik” for the weekend. At Osqvik, way out in the countryside, THS (the KTH student union) owns a large party cabin that students can rent out. Here you can swim, sauna, cook food and enjoy the best of the Swedish-archipelago landscape. You can even go paddle boarding!
After a great weekend, we arrived home and began to look forward, once again, to the next Midsommar celebration.
~ Declan