Midsummer

This was taken around 9 PM on Midsummer Eve.

Midsummer! It was last weekend. It's an old traditional celebration of the longest day of the year, although nowadays it's not necessarily on the day of summer solstice, it's the nearest Saturday. It was a pagan celebration before Christian times, but nowadays it's called juhannus in Finnish, named after John the Baptist (Finnish: Johannes Kastaja). Midsummer is celebrated at least in Finland, Sweden and the Baltic countries, but here's what it's like in Finland.

The stereotypical way of spending midsummer is to spend it in the countryside, possibly at a summer house/cabin, with family or a group of friends and a lot of mosquitoes. There's beer and a barbecue, and you take a sauna and swim in the lake. You might even go fishing.

Younger people might stay in the city and have a house party with friends. This would also include sauna-ing and loads and loads of beer. (You can see it in the shops from the beginning of June, they order huge loads of beer in preparation...)

I (and my family) did neither of these scenarios. My mum actually went to Ireland to escape Midsummer, and I spent it with my grandmother. She lives in the countryside and we did some other traditional things too.

Juhannuskoivut - Midsummer birch trees on each side of the stairs.

The Finnish flag went up on Midsummer Eve (Friday the 22nd) at 6 PM. It was very calm, no wind at all until the evening of Midsummer Day when it was taken down at 9 PM. That's why it looks so droopy.

We also had some nice flowers:

On Midsummer Day we visited some family, and some visited us. We even had a little barbecue! And sauna of course. So I guess it was kind of a traditional midsummer. Our family isn't big on beer or alcohol in general, so that wasn't part of it for us. We don't live next to a lake either, so we didn't go swimming or fishing.

Which brings me to THE DARK SIDE of midsummer. :o 

Since it's a public holiday and everyone heads to the countryside at the same time, the roads are full of impatient drivers --->  they get into car accidents 

When they reach their destination people start drinking, which makes them come up with brilliant ideas, such as 

- drunk driving ---> more car accidents

- going fishing/swimming/driving a boat --->  they drown

- starting a fight with the family ---> domestic violence

- taking a sauna ---> fires (drunk people are sloppy with matches...)

All of this keeps the police, the fire departments and hospitals busy. This year about 15 people died during Midsummer. Usually if the weather is bad, there are less deaths because people tend to stay calmer and inside, but this year it was sunny. Not particularly warm, only about 17-20 degrees, but still nice.

Anyhoo, there are some other traditional things that people do at Midsummer that we didn't.

Kokko - Bonfire. I have no idea where this tradition came from, but there are bonfires in the evening or at midnight, and usually near a lake. We saw some when we were smaller but I haven't seen one in a while. These are obviously fire hazards as well, so I think they're usually organised by some official authority, like the city or some society... I don't really know.

There are also several "love traditions" related to Midsummer. They say that if you find seven different flowers or herbs and put them under your pillow, you'll dream of your future husband. I've never tried this. I think another one is that if you look down a well during Midsummer night you'll see your future husband's face. Never tried this either :D

That's my little info package about midsummer, hope you enjoyed and learned something you didn't already know :D My blog is so educational...

Bye bye! :P