The melody to Små grodorna (Little frogs) has its origin in a French song, which was used by the Englishmen during the Napoleonic wars as a funny song about the French. So in reality we make fun of the French and sing that they are little frogs. But most Swedes don't know the story and think it's just a funny song to sing during midsummer. 😀
The original song is called "la chanson de l'Ognion" and was a french military march song during the french revolution. Then the British rewrote the lyrics to make fun of the french, and in the late 1800's it was translated to swedish and became an "important" part of swedish culture.
I never meet a person who celibate national day apart from possibly get drunk the day before. Its moving around so it really not a usable hollyday like midsummer.. And Well Christmas and New years that is also moving around are 2 and 3 day holidays
Regarding the christmas buffé, it's traditionally 7 plates: 1: pickled herring 2: fish, as smoked salmon 3: cold meat, smoked ham, smoked deer and stuff 4: hot food, meat balls, Jansons temptation ... Then i'm unsure, one is a cheese plate, one is cookies.
Stefan can only really talk for his own friend group, they seem to be hyper-social and live in villas. Most Swedes live in apartments, actually. Midsummer festivities are a private thing if you have a house, yes, but there are also communal ones (outside major cities). They are quite nice and you can experience the general gist of the celebration, as there will always be a maypole for the kids. People usually bring their own food to these celebrations. Historically, Sweden was very poor and the staple food was salted fish with potatoes. For "Midsommar", Christmas and Easter they made the fish more festive by adding flavor. Also other more expensive foods were also made, like meatballs and such. They would go all-out with serving all these mis-matched foods on a single table for people to pick and choose from - the "Smörgåsbord". The whole "eggs with fish eggs on top" is a very Swedish tradition. It is not as bad as you think, as the eggs only really add some salt to the overall flavor. You may have heard of "Kalles Kaviar", which is a very popular topping on sandwiches (especially on eggs). It is basically creamed, smoked, fish eggs (red caviar), in a tube. If you ever go to Sweden, try it on boiled eggs and do NOT eat it directly from the tube until used to to the taste (horrible as a fist experience). Midsommar: Pickled Herring (special variant called "Matjes" or "spiced" is traditionally served), potatoes, fresh chive, sour cream. Other foods are optional. Christmas: Ham and potatoes. Meatballs, "Prince sausage" (tiny), Pickles herring (Mustard, onion, all different kinds) + more. Easter: Lamb roast, potato gratin, many (many) eggs with fish eggs on top, salmon.
There really is nothing like it! Best feeling ever is when your local supermarket has Swedish strawberries for the first time in the season. Especially when its from one specific small local farm that we have in my town, if I may say so myself.. But everyone in the north of Sweden probably say that they know where the BEST strawberries are... And we might all be right!😅
I'm a 33 years old Swede living in Sweden and right now i'm out in the Swedish Archipelago 100km south of Sthlm in my hometown Nyköping sitting on the cliffs having a cold beer 🍻👌 Had some Swedish Strawberrys🍓 with cream about an hour ago and i'm thinking about taking a bath 😎 🌞💦 temperature is around 20°c but in the sun it's really hot and i'm sitting here without a t-shirt and that i'm hope would tell you something 😎 Glad Midsommar and take care! 👏
About the seven different species of flowers... You're supposed to pick seven different species of flowers while keeping silent and for every flower you pick you need to jump over a fence (gärdsgård in Swedish). Then put the flowers under your pillow and you will dream of your future spouse. It's supposed to be conducted the day before midsummer, so when you wake up on midsummer's day you'll know who to marry
In my family we usually drive out to our summer house in the country side for midsummer. This year we invited some family friends to sleep over as well. We had the typical midsummer/any other holiday food, sill (pickled herring) potatoes, meatballs and västerbotten pie and more. I always make flower crowns for everyone on midsummer and most years we go to the celebration for the neighborhood with a midsommarstång (midsummer pole) and dances and singing.
The frogdance is dancehall at both midsommar and Christmas Round the christmas tree. And we have other dances that also have movements illustrating the lyrics, like Räven raskar över isen (the fox trotts over the ice)
👩🏼🌾🇫🇮🥂☀️ Hello, Dwayne! We celebrate midsummer exactly like in Sweden here in Finland - at least we Finland-Swedes do. However, we don't have maypoles in every part of Finland, but the midsummer bonfire is a must. And the sauna and the dip in the Baltic sea or a lake. But we Finland-Swedes join the Swedes in having the words to the schnapps songs printed down and distributed. We also share some other unexpected celebrations like the Lucia on 13th of December. The crayfish parties are another one. I could go on...
Thanks Dwayne, you are one of my fave youtubers. You make my country seem cooler than we are. I live in Stockholm and you are welcome on my couch whenever you want ❤
Just came home from midsummer celebration at a 4H farm with our little girl. Dancing, animals and riding behind a tractor. Soooo many people! Now we’ll wait for my MIL to come for dinner. Some grilled food, salad and seafood. And of course strawberries and cream. Can’t have midsummer without it. A quiet midsummer at home. However when we were younger we would go to some friends, eat whatever we wanted, drink a lot, play games and stay up all night. Here on the coast we would also take a midnight dip (very often naked, because who cares when you’re drunk) I think cold foods are good since you may sit down and eat and talk for a long time. Then you can leave it out so anyone can eat when you feel like it or take it out again later.
The thing you asked about before the eggs is Matjessill we eat it with new potatoes gräddfil (sour creame) chopped chive. Thats the real must on midsummer. And strawberry with whipped cream
The frog dance actually came to Gothenburg in the late 1800s from English students who came to Nääs castle. The origin’s from the La Chanson de l’Oignon (the onion song), which was a military march during the French Revolution. The English then made it into a zealot about the French, changing the onion into frogs. It’s believed that, due to the language barrier, it was easier for the students of arts, crafts and folk culture to use songs and dances to communicate and it was introduced to Sweden and has from then lived on. At the midsummer I went to this weekend, it was the adults that ran to the dance floor when it was announced that the frog dance was up next
Don't worry about missing the Swedish national day. Most swedes do as well. It's actually quite new. It became a public holiday in 2005. The Swedish government was envious of our neighbours, that had national days. But we didn't have anything to celebrate, so they chose the date when an old king (Gustav Vasa on 6th June 1523) was chosen king. Swedish midsummer = RAIN. That's a law of nature! I do believe that the midsummer pole does represent a fallos symbol. I've heard that it originally was a festival of fertility (not only for people, but for nature as a whole), before it was expropriated by the christians (as they usualy do). The composer and lyricist of "the frogdance" is unknown. However, according to Wikipedia", the melody can be traced to a military march from the Freanch revolution (La Chanson de l’Oignon). A.k.a "The onion song". There are variants in other nordic countries. In Denmark, it's called "Små frøer", and in Norway "Små rumpetroll" Midsummer is NOT a family holiday. Quite the contrary, in fact. There are two occations where swedes get out and mingle; Midsummerseve and New Years Eve. When you come to Sweden, you're free to join in. (Just tell me when you get here, I'd love to see you dance "små grodorna" 😄. Just one thing. All the festivals are in the country side. If you come to a Swedish city on midsummers eve, you might think that there ARE no Swedes! "Fish eggs, on chicken eggs". Ha-ha! I've never thought of it like that, but I love it. I'm gonna steal that one. It's nice that Stefan got around to mention the seven flowers. It's a tradition that is very much forgotten these days. So, get out there and pick yourselves seven types of flowers, and put them under your pillows tonight. I wish ye all pleasant midsummer night dreams.
I would say that Midsummer is very much a family holliday😊 To dance around the pole, to have picknicks outside, making flower-wreaths.. It depends on what age-group you belong to how you celebrate..
I think you’re absolutely right about midsummer parties. It’s done mostly with close friends and family. But there are some more public parties taking place here and there. Skansen for example hosts a big party/celebration event
The frog dance is a tradition but it is really something for the kids. It's a fun thing for the kids to do on midsommar but it's such a big tradition that also adults do the dance, together with their kids.
Yeah it's meant for the kids and everyone say it's for the kids but we all know the adults like to get a chance to act silly and feel like a kid again without judgement! 😅
Here in Stockholm, sun rises at 3:30 and sets at 22:08, but it's only actually dark for an hour or two. It trips me up, it's always later than I think in the evenings.
At 12.23 you wonder whatever is on top of that egg, and yes - it is exactly what your father liked. Shrimps/prawns (with mayo and dill) on top. You'll find it at almost every "Smörgåsbord"
To celebrate midsummer you can celebrate with the family, I think the biggest midsummer celebration in Sweden is located in Leksand in Dalarna, the spectators are usually between 20-30 thousand people, the celebration is all over the country in different sizes
There are accounts of famous travelers describing Swedish midsummer celebrations, it is truly an ancient pagan celebration which is unique even to Scandinavia. Midsummer is our *actual* national day, the one we "celebrate" on June 6th is just when Gustav Vasa declared himself king and we broke out of the Kalmar Union and became our own, sovereign nation. Midsummer goes way, way further back.
You don't need to know anyone for a good celebrating Midsommar! There is lot of places who has an opendoorpolicy so you just go there. Usually sweds are open to talk to you - normal after 1-10 snaps!! 😂🎉
You can join the selebrations around the maypole without invitations at tens of thousands of places. But before or afterwards you either have your own midsummer lunch or dinner and or barbecue, or you get an invitation to someone elses. Many swede has celebrated midsummer in many different places.
Its worth saying that even in Luleå and possibly as far south as Umeå, even if the sun technically goes down, Its still basically as bright as during the day. When the Sun is just 1 or 2 degrees under the horizon. In Luleå the sun is only one degree under the horizon at mid night and at Umeå about 2½ degrees, and Stockholm is about 7 degrees under. One degree under is the equivalent of what the sun is near the equator 4 minutes after it sets. Umeå would be about 8 minutes and Stockholm would be almost half a hour. Typically for it to be called full night the sun need to be between 6 and 12 degrees under the horizon. (6 degrees in a wooded or city landscape and 12 degrees out at sea. So even as far south as Stockholm it really just becomes night a very short period at this day. Even if the sun is down somthing like 3½ hours, the actual night is just a bit over 1 hour. Basically the more north you go, the more does the strawberries taste. They can get pretty big in Sweden as well, but they are typically very uneven.
The Small Frogs we got from you Britts as I’ve mentioned in another video. The french where marching and singing along to Chanson de l'Oignon. The britts saw and heard, in mocking the french Frogs they made up their own lyrics about frogs. Then somehow they persuaded us swedes to pick it up.
The cold foods thing to me feels like a tradition born out of necessity. It's a BIG feast, loads of different types and variations of food, often with fancy garnishes and stuff that's gonna take a while to prep and since swedish kitchens usually aren't all that massive you kinda need to have a way for each dish to be at the right temp right in time for serving. One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply not require it to be warm in the first place. Less dishes competing for oven or stove space means you can have a wider variety of foods overall. Not to mention the value of being able to prep stuff the night ahead and have the entire morning uninterupted to get yourself gussied up. Often times the cold stuff is deligated to people who are visiting while the warm stuff is made by the hosts. (Or at least finished at the host's house, if the cooking of a particular dish is able to be put on hold overnight)
I lived in London for almost 3 years in my youth and then 10 years in the US and i find British society and people much more similar to Swedish. The traditional Midsummer celebrations were more a "must" many years ago. Now i think its mainly families with younger children doing the dancing around the May Ploe. Foodwise i think the herring and new potatoes are still going strong. Also the "smörgåsbord" with lots of dishes. And yes very similar to the one we have on Christmas 😅. Seems like a lot of people eat herring for lunch and grill/barbecue at night now. We do like to dance frog dance and other typical dances (that goes for both around the may pole and Christmas tree) and we love being organized with snapsvisor printed out. Like you say though i think all families/friend groups create their own version of how their traditions look. We do celebrate our national day, not much though and it wasnt until 2005 it became a national holiday.
The Small Frog dance is actually imported from the UK. It was a satirical version of a French marching song during Napoleonic wars. The line outside of Systembolaget was probably during Covid when they could only let 50 people in the store not the 250 which is normal.
hi Thanks for a great channel. the fact is that some of us celebrate our national day. Me and my family, i.e. my wife and our children, who are four in number, always celebrate National Day in a park called Hagaparken near Haga Castle, where our Crown Princess's family lives, we do this together with about 40,002 people and together with the royal opera, the royal court chapel, the royal opera choir, soloists and the royal ballet, which gives us an unforgettable national day concert, after dinner we usually go home and have a luxurious dinner and follow the broadcasts from Skansen, which is an open air museum where the royal family participates, then the broadcast ends outside the royal palace where the army band plays Tapto.
I'm currently in the north of Scotland. Yes, the days are long. It was still dawn at 23:00, but it's not anywhere near the same as in northern Sweden, where I've been playing football in sunlight at 2am in the morning.
I drove home to Stockholm late this Midsummer evening, between 10-11 past midnight, after have being celebrating Midsommer at a place 150 kilometers from home. The sky was still light and I had a beautiful sun set in the rearview mirror all the way home. ☀️🌄
I went to the UK in the beginning of May to visit my English cousin. She does morris dancing so I do not know why you say it is not done any more. We went to Upton on Severn when there was a fair. There were at least five different groups of morris dancers (from all over the country) who performed in the streets all day. I took a video of my cousins group and it looks wonderful.
There are two types of Midsummer celebrations. Private, as we saw in the video. It varies quite a bit from group to group but the center point is the food and drink. Usually less alcohol if there are children present and it's become common practice to offer alcohol free versions in the last few years. The second type is the public celebration with the May Pole and the dancing around it. Many public celebrations I've been to have a live band playing traditional songs and with the regional outfits. The one I went to this year also showed off the different dances that went with the songs. Very cool (except the guy on the guitar that was a bit all over the place, but you can't have everything I suppose). You should have no problem visiting one of those. We had a private celebration at lunch and then we went to a big local park for a public one. Other years we have done it the other way around. The only explanation for the May Pole I've heard is it comes all the way back from the viking age and Asatru, the pagan religion. The huge round wreaths that are hanging down are supposed to represent sacrifices, because Midsummer was a very important religious holiday and they had a massive feast. Of course it's phallic, if you look at old religious artifacts and artwork penises are all over the place. I'm not sure what the debate is. In truth, I think our holidays have always been about drinking and eating. I suppose that's true for many rural, agricultural societies.
Only the fresh potatoes (the first new potatoes of the year) is warm on an midsummer plate. He mixes up our holidays, only the herring is there all year round.
We have smörgåsbord when it is a feast. It is always hearring. Other foods can be diffrent. Some have eggs but mostly thats for easter. Meatballs are for christmus and easter. Ham with mustard only for christmus. Sheimp for easter and midsummer. Janssons frestelse and sillsallad for chrismus. Fish eggs are not for christmus. Chives and sourcream on herring is for midsummer. In midsommar many have herring for lunch and in the eavning we get some barbecue.
Remember when i was contractor in london and we work in Ikea wembley , And my and firiends that did work there, bought all of the stuff for midsummer in kea swedish shop, and we told our english work buddys to come to our place, we did have the midsummerpole and frog dance and all the swedish stuff, They did have a blast and all the neighbors was looking and wonder what is this Cult , good times this was 2004 or 2005
There are LOTS of public midsummer celebrations all over Sweden where anyone can join, alone or not! But of course a lot of private midsummer parties too.
On the food, on midsummer we have a few things, on Easter we have a few things more and on christmas we go all in. So midsummer food is the basic food of it all and we just keep adding things.
The drinking songs (snapsvisor) are a big deal in traditional Swedish drinking culture during holiday meals. Usually in smaller company, like family or friends, you all know the songs usually sang. But when you are drinking with a lot of strangers or on a company Christmas meal a song book is useful. They are usually just alternative lyrics to an existing well known melody, and this makes it much easier to sing along even if you just get the lyrics. There are hundreds (or even thousands) of different songs, and new ones are constantly written. There are books published with big collections. We even have local and national competitions every year where the best songs are chosen.
Midsummer, teenagers have their own party and the little ones with parents and family and older friends celebrate together.. And yes, there is singing and frogdancing =)
Kubb is a relatively new game, a more traditional game is "varpa" where you throw flat stones against a peg trying to get closest to it or knocking it down
The cold food largely stems from the old brännvinsbord (i.e. strong alcohol plus butter, bread, cheese, herring, ...) always present at small town hotels and similar until a century ago or so. This was the forefather of the more internationally famous smörgåsbord. But the latter is more of a mix of cold cut, and warm dishes. The julbord around christmas is basically a seasonal variation on the same theme. And yes, some of it appears at midsummer too.
I wrote a whole paragraph😭. When it’s time to eat on the holiday there’s always egg and cold cooked salmon and many more dishes. On Christmas we usually have prinskorv witch is small sausages, and revbensspjäll witch is rib flaps. But yeah you can say that we eat pretty much the same thing every time, sometimes you can have different meals but that depends on what you have for dishes and which holiday it is.😊
Don’t worry about not being invited to a midsummer party. If you’re here I’m sure that many will ask you to join! I would. It’s always funny to see how foreigners react on this holiday.
Where did the Swedish frog dance come from? It has a long tradition, dating back to the French Revolution and it's been incorporated into the most important holiday in Sweden; the Midsummer festivities. It's easy to learn and the kids love it, so it lives on generation after generation.
That line for "Systembolaget" happend during the pandemic. His video is 2 years old right? At that time Sytembolaget would only let a few customers in at the time to reduce contamination risks. My guess is that most Swedes do their alcohol purchases in the days leading up to midsummer. I know I do.
I personally don't celebrate many holidays at all, but i know alot of people who will make a big party at Midsommar. Also, i bet you, if you go to Sweden during Midsommer, many swedish subscribers would invite you to their party,
it's a French military song from the beginning far, far back that the Americans changed or england by adding frogs etc. which then came into the hands of the Swedes and became a dance here
Hell yeah we do printout of songs. I and some collegues arranged lucia at work and made them sing a few traditional songs (otherwise they can say oh I don't know the lyrics but now they have no excuses 😉).
I've never been much for organised midsummer parties with table cloth and games. A picnic with some potatoes, (vegan) skagen, baguette, strawberries and (loads of) beer, by the ocean or a lake, going for a midnight swim and maybe later take a cab to some secret rave in the forest, that's a perfect midsummer to me! Friends, mingling and mysterious night swims! Walking home in the rain around 7 am, slightly disoriented. It's important to try not to have any expectations though. Every midsummer can't be magical. And some years one might not be invited at all. It's a bit like NYE - everyone is nervous they won't be invited - but also nervous to say yes too quickly in case something better comes along... Some people prefer small, cosy dinners at home (or the nearest park) but I'd rather be alone than being stranded in some little quaint cottage with one (early-to-bed) couple, three bus changes away from the city. (And I haven't seen a midsummer pole since 1994!)
Swedish "Små grodorna" (Little Frogs) have its page on Wikipedia. Here is a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%A5_grodorna When it comes to traditional Midsummer celebration, you can join the official celebrations throughout the main cities. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer Food wise, we eat pickled herring (several different flavors and pickling) and and egg with red caviar plus the food he describes. And yes, it is kind of "frowned upon" not participating in the singing and dancing and games even thought it's in good jest. And, YES, we drink hard liqueur while singing.
Yup! Pretty much the same food for all holidays. Or, well, the same "core" food, like herring and those eggs with roe. There are some local differences depending on where in Sweden you are for the rest. Jansons Frestelse is another pretty universal Christmas food that's often not eaten on midsummer. That's because those were available all-year around. The difference historically between midsummer and Christmas is that we eat a different type of potato on midsummer (färskpotatis) as that one isn't available on Christmas due to when it's harvested. The other things we eat are more seasonal things, so more fresh things like vegetables on midsummer, while Christmas had a lot more preserved things, like jellied pig's feet (which is rarely if ever eaten nowadays). A lot of people nowadays also do a BBQ on midsummer, but that's less traditional. So they might do a more traditional midsummer lunch, and then a BBQ for dinner in the evening. Strawberries are also another thing that's popular on midsummer. While it is traditional, it was rare to see on the table historically as it was very expensive. Then again, to be fair, most of the things we eat on both Christmas and midsummer now were primarily things only the richest nobles could afford. But the core theme is the same. Nowadays, most of the food has kind of blended together for Christmas and Midsummer since it's available year-round, so we just eat whatever our favorites are. Midsummer is probably the single most important holiday we have in Sweden, after Christmas. For most people, Christmas is celebrated with close family, while midsummer is celebrated with extended family and/or friends.
Did do a quizz today. there it was some info about the questions. In Sweden we sing "Små grodorna" to what was originally a French marching song, which the British then took over to make fun of the French ("frogs") at their expense.
About Systembolaget I never go the day before midsummer (or any holiday) but go a few days ealier when it is not to crowded. I would say that the food is similar for eastern and christmas in my family (with the additions of eggs for eastern), but only the pickled herring is included for midsummer as well. When I celebrate I basically eat pickled herring, boiled fresh potations, sour cream and chives for lunch with beer and shots. In the evening a barbacue. I know that some others do the songs to the shots and games, but the people I celebrate midsummer with don't. More relaxed, lots of drink and good music (metal music) outside a cottage in the countryside. So I would say that there are some difference between how people celebrate midsummer in Sweden.
Those are still some large strawberries, the real ones "wild strawberries" or as we call them "Smultron" are stacked with taste and are about 1-2cm big.
the long cues is the reason why you get to systembolaget early or rather before midsommar you wont see many swedes in gröna lund or liseberg during midsommar and thus the finnish and danish arrive and has a good time. midsommar is our real national day pretty much every swede goes to the countryside or to their summer house during midsummer. the food is usually salmon herring , fish roe, eggs, jansons frestelse, prince sausage, meatballs, bread, pie, eggs witg fish roe and majo, cold salmon are the more traditional foods the rest are up to the family smörgåstårta is more common during kräftskiva , desert of choice. one that has been a staple in my household for all my life is chantarelle omolette that my grandma made. there could be ribs or other hot foods as well but it depends on the house. the order is usually cold dishes and bread and then warmer foods but you can also choose what you like.
midsummer is all about mother earth and kind of wishing for a good year of harvest. The pole that we dance around is supposed to be like penetrating the earth to give us good soil (i've heard). It's originally a pagan thing where we cast out evil spirits and stuff. So we just wish for a good year. Great video btw!
The National Day organised celebrations are usually centered and kids and families. Its small fetes in like the local field, and it's usually things like a few stands, a small stage with some guy playing, a few games for the kids, maybe a lottery. It's very child focused. The rest of us basically do a picnic with friends or family. It's very low key. In Stockholm the Royal Family goes in carriages and wave to people, on their way from the castle to Skansen, where It's a performance with different artists. The King will later hand out the Swedish Flag to organizations and charities, it's a big honor getting one. Then back to the Castle for the Tapto. The whole thing is broadcasted on tv. The state owned castles is usually opened for the public for free this day, and have done events happening.
Well me my self works at midsommar so I go and get my wine a bit ahead in the week😂😂😂 but its true that Midsommar is the 2th biggest celebration of the year..❤
Midsummer is the de facto national day. Problem with 6th of June, is that not many people are sure what we are supposed to celebrate. (Gustav Vasa coronation in Västerås in 1523, definately breaking away from Denmark). There are community celebrations all over the country. But, yes, it's basically a family and friends thing.
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Yes we do wat the same food for all major holidays. maby a bit more ham for christmas, a bit more eggs for easter and a bit more herring for midsummer. But the best way to know what holiday it is is to look for the drinks. Alcoholics: Christmas - Julöl Easter - whatever Midsommar- Snaps Non alcoholics: Christmas - Julmust Ester - Påskmust Midsummer - whatever soda people actualy like Julmust, Påsmust (and Festmust) are Swedish soft drinks that are similar to beer with lots of sugar in taste. It is rumored that the teste is different between the varieties but I sure can't tell the difference. But for making sure what kind of holiday you walked into just look at the lable.
The silly dance: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Små_grodorna About the long lines to Systembolaget there was, during Covid, regulations that said max 50 costumers at a time in store. This was to ensure people to maintain distance, a guard stood at the entrance counting people going in and out. The video reacted to is a few years old so it might explaine the long lines. :) Great video as always Dwayne!
its not impossible to go to a midsummer celebration as a tourist :) there's lots of organisations that has open celebrations outdoors. You can generally buy food (maybe some cakes, hotdogs and that kind of stuff, tho traditional midsummer food is not necessarily on the menu, that's more something you do at home). You can ask at a tourist center where there are some open midsummer celebrations in the area. Sometimes you might have to pay a small fee to get in, it can depend on the place. Generally these types of outdoor open celebrations has music and dance (like the frog song) and maybe some speeches, they might also have invited some local artist to sing a few songs. There can be some other activities too.
So Midsommar is a fun and weird tradition. You can definitively celebrate Midsommar as a tourist! Of course it helps if you know someone and follow along with their family/friends but there are places everywhere in Sweden where they throw a Midsommar party for anyone to attend, and they are usually more traditional with people wearing traditional clothes and more family friendly so not as much alcohol. You can go to these places alone if you dare but I suggest bringing a Swede for translation atleast. Little frogs is one of the most common songs/dances we do but there are a couple of more. We have the same food on the Midsommar table as we do for every holiday with exception of Swedish strawberries and cream for dessert. Midsommar is all about alcohol and getting wasted for about 70% swedes or more but I have fun without too much of it so it's possible! EDIT: Shared celebrations for almost every Midsommar party; Swedish strawberries, the same food, alcohol, singing/dancing, booklet of Snaps songs, Kubb, flower crowns.
Yes we eat (not everybody) the same food pretty much. It is historical traditions. It was the food people had. And making it a feast one ate all the dishes at the same time. There are different focus though. Christmas = ham, easter = eggs, and midsummer = herring. Logical due to what was available at different seasons.
What this guy says is true BUT for me and my friends we often just make it into a BBQ party. We gather around the grill and BBQ meat, fish, chicken, vegetables... whatever we fancy. So first the herring and snaps (and songs) ... then BBQ. :)
It’s grandparents taking shots grandmas drinking wine Some people dance around midsommar stången and then we play games like having a spoon in your mouth with an egg on it and doing random games like that
Yes, the food is 85% the same between the holidays. Ham is unique for christmas and strawberries for midsummer, but the eggs and the pickled herring remains.
This is a long one, fair warning. The frog dance is mostly a kids thing, but adults often join in. More so the parents or relatives of the children in my experience. Now as to why it came about I have no clue really, the only thing I can think of is that it has to do with the frogs mating/migration seasons. In the very south of Sweden the frogs mate from April to June so just in time for midsummer you can usually see little frogs everywhere there's a body of water close by. The lyrics to the song itself translated go: "The small frogs, the small frogs are funny to see. The small frogs, the small frogs, are funny to see. Then people mimicking frog calls follow and you do the dance thing. I'm not even going to attempt to transcribe the frog noises ^^ I didn't actually queue for booze this year. The important bit of that sentence being -this year- You're pretty spot on about tourists not really being to partake. The whole maypole dance event and such is open to anyone usually, but sitting down to eat, drink shots (Snaps!) and sing songs is pretty much strictly friends and family. If you want a genuine sort of version of it at least. I've seen and used booklets, yes, but it's not like it's a rule. The only issue is sometimes you have the lyrics but half the people don't know the melody because not uncommonly those are older songs. And also you know.. by the end of the dinner some people have some trouble keeping the time of the song itself or at worst reading the lyrics haha Yes we eat a lot of the same foods. It varies regionally slightly, but I'll list the ones I am used to. Christmas and Easter are both oven-baked ham, herring, meatballs, small sausages (prince sausages), those eggs you pointed out (Yes it is egg on egg and shrimp). Also, it is almost taboo to peel your potatoes on midsummer because they are so freshly harvested that the skin is tissuepaper thin. Herring is all the time, commonly on midsummer you have a herring lunch with those newly harvested potatoes I mentioned. I'm slowly learning to like it myself simply to stop being called a child whenever I choose to pass it up ^^ Kubb is awesome - nuff said The flower thing is true. That is, that it's a tradition at least ;) Lastly, there are some traditions regarding the raising of the maypole/midsummer pole that I forgot to mention, but this comment is already insanely long so I will end it here. Happy Midsummer! / Glad Midsommar Dwayne! 😃
The melody to Små grodorna (Little frogs) has its origin in a French song, which was used by the Englishmen during the Napoleonic wars as a funny song about the French.
So in reality we make fun of the French and sing that they are little frogs. But most Swedes don't know the story and think it's just a funny song to sing during midsummer. 😀
While we chose a French officer as our new successor to the throne, back in the day when the English sang that mockery song. 😂
The original song is called "la chanson de l'Ognion" and was a french military march song during the french revolution. Then the British rewrote the lyrics to make fun of the french, and in the late 1800's it was translated to swedish and became an "important" part of swedish culture.
It's a song we should celebrate and sing in the UK.
Touché! I was gonna write that but you beat me to it :)
The onion march
Hyvää Juhannusta from Finland. Happy midsummer..
We do celebrate our national day but it is far overshadowed by midsummer.
My family doesn't celebrate the national day at all 😭If we do, it might just be by having fika or something haha
I never meet a person who celibate national day apart from possibly get drunk the day before.
Its moving around so it really not a usable hollyday like midsummer.. And Well Christmas and New years that is also moving around are 2 and 3 day holidays
@roseriam I don’t celebrate Midsummer either.
@@andreasfischer9158what how dare you
@TopViktorCool I haven’t been invited yet. It is my impression that this a family thing.
Regarding the christmas buffé, it's traditionally 7 plates:
1: pickled herring
2: fish, as smoked salmon
3: cold meat, smoked ham, smoked deer and stuff
4: hot food, meat balls, Jansons temptation
... Then i'm unsure, one is a cheese plate, one is cookies.
Yes, we dance the frog dance, sing the songs from a booklet, eat that same food, and in that order 😅
Forgot drinking drinking drinking and passing out
Allways herring and potatoes with egghalves, sour cream and chives, and strawberries with cream for dessert
Stefan can only really talk for his own friend group, they seem to be hyper-social and live in villas. Most Swedes live in apartments, actually.
Midsummer festivities are a private thing if you have a house, yes, but there are also communal ones (outside major cities). They are quite nice and you can experience the general gist of the celebration, as there will always be a maypole for the kids. People usually bring their own food to these celebrations.
Historically, Sweden was very poor and the staple food was salted fish with potatoes. For "Midsommar", Christmas and Easter they made the fish more festive by adding flavor. Also other more expensive foods were also made, like meatballs and such. They would go all-out with serving all these mis-matched foods on a single table for people to pick and choose from - the "Smörgåsbord".
The whole "eggs with fish eggs on top" is a very Swedish tradition. It is not as bad as you think, as the eggs only really add some salt to the overall flavor. You may have heard of "Kalles Kaviar", which is a very popular topping on sandwiches (especially on eggs). It is basically creamed, smoked, fish eggs (red caviar), in a tube. If you ever go to Sweden, try it on boiled eggs and do NOT eat it directly from the tube until used to to the taste (horrible as a fist experience).
Midsommar: Pickled Herring (special variant called "Matjes" or "spiced" is traditionally served), potatoes, fresh chive, sour cream. Other foods are optional.
Christmas: Ham and potatoes. Meatballs, "Prince sausage" (tiny), Pickles herring (Mustard, onion, all different kinds) + more.
Easter: Lamb roast, potato gratin, many (many) eggs with fish eggs on top, salmon.
Always had my midsommer on an island in the archipelago
Swedish strawberries grown in northern Sweden are the best imo they grow slowly but they are really sweet and huge
There really is nothing like it! Best feeling ever is when your local supermarket has Swedish strawberries for the first time in the season.
Especially when its from one specific small local farm that we have in my town, if I may say so myself.. But everyone in the north of Sweden probably say that they know where the BEST strawberries are... And we might all be right!😅
yes it's great 😊
you have places all over Sweden to join in in dancing at for example Skansen in Stockholm. Fredriksdal in Helsingborg have the same. All is welcome.
I'm a 33 years old Swede living in Sweden and right now i'm out in the Swedish Archipelago 100km south of Sthlm in my hometown Nyköping sitting on the cliffs having a cold beer 🍻👌 Had some Swedish Strawberrys🍓 with cream about an hour ago and i'm thinking about taking a bath 😎 🌞💦 temperature is around 20°c but in the sun it's really hot and i'm sitting here without a t-shirt and that i'm hope would tell you something 😎
Glad Midsommar and take care! 👏
Not i'm but i 😅
About the seven different species of flowers... You're supposed to pick seven different species of flowers while keeping silent and for every flower you pick you need to jump over a fence (gärdsgård in Swedish). Then put the flowers under your pillow and you will dream of your future spouse. It's supposed to be conducted the day before midsummer, so when you wake up on midsummer's day you'll know who to marry
Today at Midsummer in Östersund we have sunrise at 02.51 and Sunset at 23:15, but it doesn't get dark after sunset.
In my family we usually drive out to our summer house in the country side for midsummer. This year we invited some family friends to sleep over as well. We had the typical midsummer/any other holiday food, sill (pickled herring) potatoes, meatballs and västerbotten pie and more.
I always make flower crowns for everyone on midsummer and most years we go to the celebration for the neighborhood with a midsommarstång (midsummer pole) and dances and singing.
The frogdance is dancehall at both midsommar and Christmas Round the christmas tree. And we have other dances that also have movements illustrating the lyrics, like Räven raskar över isen (the fox trotts over the ice)
👩🏼🌾🇫🇮🥂☀️ Hello, Dwayne! We celebrate midsummer exactly like in Sweden here in Finland - at least we Finland-Swedes do. However, we don't have maypoles in every part of Finland, but the midsummer bonfire is a must. And the sauna and the dip in the Baltic sea or a lake. But we Finland-Swedes join the Swedes in having the words to the schnapps songs printed down and distributed.
We also share some other unexpected celebrations like the Lucia on 13th of December. The crayfish parties are another one.
I could go on...
Thanks Dwayne, you are one of my fave youtubers. You make my country seem cooler than we are.
I live in Stockholm and you are welcome on my couch whenever you want ❤
Yes. It's almost the same food every hoiliday. Some differences here and there.
Some bigger midsummer celebrations usually has folk dance team as well as ring dance songs and is for everyone to enjoy, just bring your own picnic.
Just came home from midsummer celebration at a 4H farm with our little girl. Dancing, animals and riding behind a tractor.
Soooo many people!
Now we’ll wait for my MIL to come for dinner. Some grilled food, salad and seafood. And of course strawberries and cream. Can’t have midsummer without it.
A quiet midsummer at home.
However when we were younger we would go to some friends, eat whatever we wanted, drink a lot, play games and stay up all night.
Here on the coast we would also take a midnight dip (very often naked, because who cares when you’re drunk)
I think cold foods are good since you may sit down and eat and talk for a long time. Then you can leave it out so anyone can eat when you feel like it or take it out again later.
The thing you asked about before the eggs is Matjessill we eat it with new potatoes gräddfil (sour creame) chopped chive. Thats the real must on midsummer. And strawberry with whipped cream
The frog dance actually came to Gothenburg in the late 1800s from English students who came to Nääs castle. The origin’s from the La Chanson de l’Oignon (the onion song), which was a military march during the French Revolution. The English then made it into a zealot about the French, changing the onion into frogs. It’s believed that, due to the language barrier, it was easier for the students of arts, crafts and folk culture to use songs and dances to communicate and it was introduced to Sweden and has from then lived on. At the midsummer I went to this weekend, it was the adults that ran to the dance floor when it was announced that the frog dance was up next
Best way to explaining it its like thnaksgiving but with a few liters of every alcholik drink known to man
Scrach that just been there that was a understate ment every adoult was fucking hamerd so baddly that ai became the oldest mentaly
Don't worry about missing the Swedish national day. Most swedes do as well. It's actually quite new. It became a public holiday in 2005. The Swedish government was envious of our neighbours, that had national days. But we didn't have anything to celebrate, so they chose the date when an old king (Gustav Vasa on 6th June 1523) was chosen king.
Swedish midsummer = RAIN. That's a law of nature!
I do believe that the midsummer pole does represent a fallos symbol. I've heard that it originally was a festival of fertility (not only for people, but for nature as a whole), before it was expropriated by the christians (as they usualy do).
The composer and lyricist of "the frogdance" is unknown. However, according to Wikipedia", the melody can be traced to a military march from the Freanch revolution (La Chanson de l’Oignon). A.k.a "The onion song". There are variants in other nordic countries. In Denmark, it's called "Små frøer", and in Norway "Små rumpetroll"
Midsummer is NOT a family holiday. Quite the contrary, in fact. There are two occations where swedes get out and mingle; Midsummerseve and New Years Eve. When you come to Sweden, you're free to join in. (Just tell me when you get here, I'd love to see you dance "små grodorna" 😄. Just one thing. All the festivals are in the country side. If you come to a Swedish city on midsummers eve, you might think that there ARE no Swedes!
"Fish eggs, on chicken eggs". Ha-ha! I've never thought of it like that, but I love it. I'm gonna steal that one.
It's nice that Stefan got around to mention the seven flowers. It's a tradition that is very much forgotten these days. So, get out there and pick yourselves seven types of flowers, and put them under your pillows tonight.
I wish ye all pleasant midsummer night dreams.
I would say that Midsummer is very much a family holliday😊 To dance around the pole, to have picknicks outside, making flower-wreaths.. It depends on what age-group you belong to how you celebrate..
@@memoblom2112 Look at the video. Those people have a heck of a large family.
just came back from celebrating midsommar and started watching this
Same 😂
WTF? That's way too early.
@@Nipponing no it was 14:00 when i came home
@@very_nice_gaming Yeah... that's crazy early.
@@Nipponing no you do it around 11 or 12 not 14 or 15 thats to late
I live and work in north of Sweden (I work as a freight train driver) and I LOVE to drive more north and drive towards the sun
I think you’re absolutely right about midsummer parties. It’s done mostly with close friends and family. But there are some more public parties taking place here and there. Skansen for example hosts a big party/celebration event
We sing a lot!😊💙💛 Glad midsommar!!
You can absolutely participate in traditional celebration on Midsummer. In central Stockholm you can visit Skansen.
In Sweden we eat the same kind of food for every major holiday. It's always Sill (Herring), Eggs in various forms, potatoes and meatballs.
The frog dance is a tradition but it is really something for the kids. It's a fun thing for the kids to do on midsommar but it's such a big tradition that also adults do the dance, together with their kids.
Yeah it's meant for the kids and everyone say it's for the kids but we all know the adults like to get a chance to act silly and feel like a kid again without judgement! 😅
Here in Stockholm, sun rises at 3:30 and sets at 22:08, but it's only actually dark for an hour or two. It trips me up, it's always later than I think in the evenings.
At 12.23 you wonder whatever is on top of that egg, and yes - it is exactly what your father liked. Shrimps/prawns (with mayo and dill) on top. You'll find it at almost every "Smörgåsbord"
9:56 kinda
But we have eggs on Easter
And a thing that is like Coca-Cola NAME: påskmust on Easter and one named julmust
I just celebrated my first midsommer here in Gothenburg and it’s pretty amazing
yayyy,gothenburg is the best city
did you celebrate in slottskogen?
@@mira961 yeah and so many people
To celebrate midsummer you can celebrate with the family, I think the biggest midsummer celebration in Sweden is located in Leksand in Dalarna, the spectators are usually between 20-30 thousand people, the celebration is all over the country in different sizes
Herring is the staple of Swedish holidays. Christmas, Easter, Midsummer. It's delicious
There are accounts of famous travelers describing Swedish midsummer celebrations, it is truly an ancient pagan celebration which is unique even to Scandinavia.
Midsummer is our *actual* national day, the one we "celebrate" on June 6th is just when Gustav Vasa declared himself king and we broke out of the Kalmar Union and became our own, sovereign nation. Midsummer goes way, way further back.
And the new form of governmental reign of 1809, was also declared on June 6th
You don't need to know anyone for a good celebrating Midsommar! There is lot of places who has an opendoorpolicy so you just go there. Usually sweds are open to talk to you - normal after 1-10 snaps!! 😂🎉
You can join the selebrations around the maypole without invitations at tens of thousands of places.
But before or afterwards you either have your own midsummer lunch or dinner and or barbecue, or you get an invitation to someone elses.
Many swede has celebrated midsummer in many different places.
Yesterday we celebrated midsommarafton. We had super weather (at least where we were). Today it is midsommardagen and it is raining again.
Its worth saying that even in Luleå and possibly as far south as Umeå, even if the sun technically goes down, Its still basically as bright as during the day. When the Sun is just 1 or 2 degrees under the horizon. In Luleå the sun is only one degree under the horizon at mid night and at Umeå about 2½ degrees, and Stockholm is about 7 degrees under.
One degree under is the equivalent of what the sun is near the equator 4 minutes after it sets. Umeå would be about 8 minutes and Stockholm would be almost half a hour.
Typically for it to be called full night the sun need to be between 6 and 12 degrees under the horizon. (6 degrees in a wooded or city landscape and 12 degrees out at sea.
So even as far south as Stockholm it really just becomes night a very short period at this day. Even if the sun is down somthing like 3½ hours, the actual night is just a bit over 1 hour.
Basically the more north you go, the more does the strawberries taste. They can get pretty big in Sweden as well, but they are typically very uneven.
The Small Frogs we got from you Britts as I’ve mentioned in another video.
The french where marching and singing along to Chanson de l'Oignon. The britts saw and heard, in mocking the french Frogs they made up their own lyrics about frogs. Then somehow they persuaded us swedes to pick it up.
The cold foods thing to me feels like a tradition born out of necessity. It's a BIG feast, loads of different types and variations of food, often with fancy garnishes and stuff that's gonna take a while to prep and since swedish kitchens usually aren't all that massive you kinda need to have a way for each dish to be at the right temp right in time for serving. One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply not require it to be warm in the first place. Less dishes competing for oven or stove space means you can have a wider variety of foods overall.
Not to mention the value of being able to prep stuff the night ahead and have the entire morning uninterupted to get yourself gussied up. Often times the cold stuff is deligated to people who are visiting while the warm stuff is made by the hosts. (Or at least finished at the host's house, if the cooking of a particular dish is able to be put on hold overnight)
I lived in London for almost 3 years in my youth and then 10 years in the US and i find British society and people much more similar to Swedish.
The traditional Midsummer celebrations were more a "must" many years ago. Now i think its mainly families with younger children doing the dancing around the May Ploe.
Foodwise i think the herring and new potatoes are still going strong. Also the "smörgåsbord" with lots of dishes. And yes very similar to the one we have on Christmas 😅. Seems like a lot of people eat herring for lunch and grill/barbecue at night now.
We do like to dance frog dance and other typical dances (that goes for both around the may pole and Christmas tree) and we love being organized with snapsvisor printed out.
Like you say though i think all families/friend groups create their own version of how their traditions look.
We do celebrate our national day, not much though and it wasnt until 2005 it became a national holiday.
The Small Frog dance is actually imported from the UK. It was a satirical version of a French marching song during Napoleonic wars. The line outside of Systembolaget was probably during Covid when they could only let 50 people in the store not the 250 which is normal.
I live close to the Artic Circle and around midsummer at midnight it's just a bit dusk here, I've played golf at midnight many times
hi Thanks for a great channel. the fact is that some of us celebrate our national day. Me and my family, i.e. my wife and our children, who are four in number, always celebrate National Day in a park called Hagaparken near Haga Castle, where our Crown Princess's family lives, we do this together with about 40,002 people and together with the royal opera, the royal court chapel, the royal opera choir, soloists and the royal ballet, which gives us an unforgettable national day concert, after dinner we usually go home and have a luxurious dinner and follow the broadcasts from Skansen, which is an open air museum where the royal family participates, then the broadcast ends outside the royal palace where the army band plays Tapto.
I'm currently in the north of Scotland. Yes, the days are long. It was still dawn at 23:00, but it's not anywhere near the same as in northern Sweden, where I've been playing football in sunlight at 2am in the morning.
I drove home to Stockholm late this Midsummer evening, between 10-11 past midnight, after have being celebrating Midsommer at a place 150 kilometers from home. The sky was still light and I had a beautiful sun set in the rearview mirror all the way home. ☀️🌄
I went to the UK in the beginning of May to visit my English cousin. She does morris dancing so I do not know why you say it is not done any more. We went to Upton on Severn when there was a fair. There were at least five different groups of morris dancers (from all over the country) who performed in the streets all day. I took a video of my cousins group and it looks wonderful.
We absolutely do sing with the snaps lmao with the printed booklets and everything 😂
I am Swedish and I love these videos, keep doing them!
There are two types of Midsummer celebrations. Private, as we saw in the video. It varies quite a bit from group to group but the center point is the food and drink. Usually less alcohol if there are children present and it's become common practice to offer alcohol free versions in the last few years. The second type is the public celebration with the May Pole and the dancing around it. Many public celebrations I've been to have a live band playing traditional songs and with the regional outfits. The one I went to this year also showed off the different dances that went with the songs. Very cool (except the guy on the guitar that was a bit all over the place, but you can't have everything I suppose). You should have no problem visiting one of those. We had a private celebration at lunch and then we went to a big local park for a public one. Other years we have done it the other way around.
The only explanation for the May Pole I've heard is it comes all the way back from the viking age and Asatru, the pagan religion. The huge round wreaths that are hanging down are supposed to represent sacrifices, because Midsummer was a very important religious holiday and they had a massive feast. Of course it's phallic, if you look at old religious artifacts and artwork penises are all over the place. I'm not sure what the debate is. In truth, I think our holidays have always been about drinking and eating. I suppose that's true for many rural, agricultural societies.
Only the fresh potatoes (the first new potatoes of the year) is warm on an midsummer plate. He mixes up our holidays, only the herring is there all year round.
We have smörgåsbord when it is a feast. It is always hearring. Other foods can be diffrent. Some have eggs but mostly thats for easter. Meatballs are for christmus and easter. Ham with mustard only for christmus. Sheimp for easter and midsummer. Janssons frestelse and sillsallad for chrismus. Fish eggs are not for christmus. Chives and sourcream on herring is for midsummer. In midsommar many have herring for lunch and in the eavning we get some barbecue.
Remember when i was contractor in london and we work in Ikea wembley , And my and firiends that did work there, bought all of the stuff for midsummer in kea swedish shop, and we told our english work buddys to come to our place, we did have the midsummerpole and frog dance and all the swedish stuff, They did have a blast and all the neighbors was looking and wonder what is this Cult , good times this was 2004 or 2005
There are LOTS of public midsummer celebrations all over Sweden where anyone can join, alone or not! But of course a lot of private midsummer parties too.
On the food, on midsummer we have a few things, on Easter we have a few things more and on christmas we go all in.
So midsummer food is the basic food of it all and we just keep adding things.
The drinking songs (snapsvisor) are a big deal in traditional Swedish drinking culture during holiday meals. Usually in smaller company, like family or friends, you all know the songs usually sang. But when you are drinking with a lot of strangers or on a company Christmas meal a song book is useful.
They are usually just alternative lyrics to an existing well known melody, and this makes it much easier to sing along even if you just get the lyrics.
There are hundreds (or even thousands) of different songs, and new ones are constantly written. There are books published with big collections. We even have local and national competitions every year where the best songs are chosen.
Midsummer, teenagers have their own party and the little ones with parents and family and older friends celebrate together.. And yes, there is singing and frogdancing =)
Glad midsommar Dwayne! 🙂 Jag önskar dig en riktigt bra midsommar och en underbart fantastisk sommar 🙂
Kubb is a relatively new game, a more traditional game is "varpa" where you throw flat stones against a peg trying to get closest to it or knocking it down
Kubb isn’t at all a new game it is realy old but it became popular again in the 90s
@@ingegerdandersson6963 Quite, I meant it wasn't popular until recently
Glad midsommar 🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪
The cold food largely stems from the old brännvinsbord (i.e. strong alcohol plus butter, bread, cheese, herring, ...) always present at small town hotels and similar until a century ago or so. This was the forefather of the more internationally famous smörgåsbord. But the latter is more of a mix of cold cut, and warm dishes. The julbord around christmas is basically a seasonal variation on the same theme. And yes, some of it appears at midsummer too.
I wrote a whole paragraph😭. When it’s time to eat on the holiday there’s always egg and cold cooked salmon and many more dishes. On Christmas we usually have prinskorv witch is small sausages, and revbensspjäll witch is rib flaps. But yeah you can say that we eat pretty much the same thing every time, sometimes you can have different meals but that depends on what you have for dishes and which holiday it is.😊
Don’t worry about not being invited to a midsummer party. If you’re here I’m sure that many will ask you to join! I would. It’s always funny to see how foreigners react on this holiday.
Where did the Swedish frog dance come from?
It has a long tradition, dating back to the French Revolution and it's been incorporated into the most important holiday in Sweden; the Midsummer festivities. It's easy to learn and the kids love it, so it lives on generation after generation.
We have that 7 flowers under the pillow and dream about your future spouse in Finland too. We call those Juhannustaikoja, Middsummer magics.
That line for "Systembolaget" happend during the pandemic. His video is 2 years old right? At that time Sytembolaget would only let a few customers in at the time to reduce contamination risks. My guess is that most Swedes do their alcohol purchases in the days leading up to midsummer. I know I do.
I personally don't celebrate many holidays at all, but i know alot of people who will make a big party at Midsommar.
Also, i bet you, if you go to Sweden during Midsommer, many swedish subscribers would invite you to their party,
it's a French military song from the beginning far, far back that the Americans changed or england by adding frogs etc. which then came into the hands of the Swedes and became a dance here
My midsummer food is new potatoes, butter and herring. You can see them in that table too. 💖🇫🇮
Hell yeah we do printout of songs. I and some collegues arranged lucia at work and made them sing a few traditional songs (otherwise they can say oh I don't know the lyrics but now they have no excuses 😉).
I've never been much for organised midsummer parties with table cloth and games. A picnic with some potatoes, (vegan) skagen, baguette, strawberries and (loads of) beer, by the ocean or a lake, going for a midnight swim and maybe later take a cab to some secret rave in the forest, that's a perfect midsummer to me! Friends, mingling and mysterious night swims! Walking home in the rain around 7 am, slightly disoriented. It's important to try not to have any expectations though. Every midsummer can't be magical. And some years one might not be invited at all. It's a bit like NYE - everyone is nervous they won't be invited - but also nervous to say yes too quickly in case something better comes along... Some people prefer small, cosy dinners at home (or the nearest park) but I'd rather be alone than being stranded in some little quaint cottage with one (early-to-bed) couple, three bus changes away from the city. (And I haven't seen a midsummer pole since 1994!)
Swedish "Små grodorna" (Little Frogs) have its page on Wikipedia. Here is a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%A5_grodorna
When it comes to traditional Midsummer celebration, you can join the official celebrations throughout the main cities. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer
Food wise, we eat pickled herring (several different flavors and pickling) and and egg with red caviar plus the food he describes. And yes, it is kind of "frowned upon" not participating in the singing and dancing and games even thought it's in good jest. And, YES, we drink hard liqueur while singing.
We do have hot food at midsummer, the BBQ is on right now here
Yup! Pretty much the same food for all holidays. Or, well, the same "core" food, like herring and those eggs with roe. There are some local differences depending on where in Sweden you are for the rest. Jansons Frestelse is another pretty universal Christmas food that's often not eaten on midsummer. That's because those were available all-year around. The difference historically between midsummer and Christmas is that we eat a different type of potato on midsummer (färskpotatis) as that one isn't available on Christmas due to when it's harvested.
The other things we eat are more seasonal things, so more fresh things like vegetables on midsummer, while Christmas had a lot more preserved things, like jellied pig's feet (which is rarely if ever eaten nowadays). A lot of people nowadays also do a BBQ on midsummer, but that's less traditional. So they might do a more traditional midsummer lunch, and then a BBQ for dinner in the evening.
Strawberries are also another thing that's popular on midsummer. While it is traditional, it was rare to see on the table historically as it was very expensive. Then again, to be fair, most of the things we eat on both Christmas and midsummer now were primarily things only the richest nobles could afford. But the core theme is the same. Nowadays, most of the food has kind of blended together for Christmas and Midsummer since it's available year-round, so we just eat whatever our favorites are.
Midsummer is probably the single most important holiday we have in Sweden, after Christmas. For most people, Christmas is celebrated with close family, while midsummer is celebrated with extended family and/or friends.
9:56 yes we eat the same food on Christmas, Easter, midsummer etc.
The olny time I have experienced queues outside systembolaget was when there were covid restrictions in place.
Did do a quizz today.
there it was some info about the questions.
In Sweden we sing "Små grodorna" to what was originally a French marching song, which the British then took over to make fun of the French ("frogs") at their expense.
About Systembolaget I never go the day before midsummer (or any holiday) but go a few days ealier when it is not to crowded.
I would say that the food is similar for eastern and christmas in my family (with the additions of eggs for eastern), but only the pickled herring is included for midsummer as well. When I celebrate I basically eat pickled herring, boiled fresh potations, sour cream and chives for lunch with beer and shots. In the evening a barbacue.
I know that some others do the songs to the shots and games, but the people I celebrate midsummer with don't. More relaxed, lots of drink and good music (metal music) outside a cottage in the countryside. So I would say that there are some difference between how people celebrate midsummer in Sweden.
I just woke up after celebrating midsummer. Got home around 5am 😆
Those are still some large strawberries, the real ones "wild strawberries" or as we call them "Smultron" are stacked with taste and are about 1-2cm big.
the long cues is the reason why you get to systembolaget early or rather before midsommar you wont see many swedes in gröna lund or liseberg during midsommar and thus the finnish and danish arrive and has a good time.
midsommar is our real national day pretty much every swede goes to the countryside or to their summer house during midsummer.
the food is usually salmon herring , fish roe, eggs, jansons frestelse, prince sausage, meatballs, bread, pie, eggs witg fish roe and majo, cold salmon are the more traditional foods the rest are up to the family
smörgåstårta is more common during kräftskiva , desert of choice.
one that has been a staple in my household for all my life is chantarelle omolette that my grandma made.
there could be ribs or other hot foods as well but it depends on the house.
the order is usually cold dishes and bread and then warmer foods but you can also choose what you like.
midsummer is all about mother earth and kind of wishing for a good year of harvest. The pole that we dance around is supposed to be like penetrating the earth to give us good soil (i've heard). It's originally a pagan thing where we cast out evil spirits and stuff. So we just wish for a good year.
Great video btw!
The National Day organised celebrations are usually centered and kids and families. Its small fetes in like the local field, and it's usually things like a few stands, a small stage with some guy playing, a few games for the kids, maybe a lottery. It's very child focused. The rest of us basically do a picnic with friends or family. It's very low key. In Stockholm the Royal Family goes in carriages and wave to people, on their way from the castle to Skansen, where It's a performance with different artists. The King will later hand out the Swedish Flag to organizations and charities, it's a big honor getting one. Then back to the Castle for the Tapto. The whole thing is broadcasted on tv. The state owned castles is usually opened for the public for free this day, and have done events happening.
Well me my self works at midsommar so I go and get my wine a bit ahead in the week😂😂😂 but its true that Midsommar is the 2th biggest celebration of the year..❤
the cold food is mostly a appetizer... then we move on to tha main course.. and... plenty to drink to both parts of de dinner...
Midsummer is the de facto national day. Problem with 6th of June, is that not many people are sure what we are supposed to celebrate.
(Gustav Vasa coronation in Västerås in 1523, definately breaking away from Denmark).
There are community celebrations all over the country. But, yes, it's basically a family and friends thing.
Yes we do wat the same food for all major holidays.
maby a bit more ham for christmas, a bit more eggs for easter and a bit more herring for midsummer.
But the best way to know what holiday it is is to look for the drinks.
Alcoholics:
Christmas - Julöl
Easter - whatever
Midsommar- Snaps
Non alcoholics:
Christmas - Julmust
Ester - Påskmust
Midsummer - whatever soda people actualy like
Julmust, Påsmust (and Festmust) are Swedish soft drinks that are similar to beer with lots of sugar in taste. It is rumored that the teste is different between the varieties but I sure can't tell the difference. But for making sure what kind of holiday you walked into just look at the lable.
The silly dance: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Små_grodorna
About the long lines to Systembolaget there was, during Covid, regulations that said max 50 costumers at a time in store.
This was to ensure people to maintain distance, a guard stood at the entrance counting people going in and out. The video reacted to is a few years old so it might explaine the long lines. :)
Great video as always Dwayne!
its not impossible to go to a midsummer celebration as a tourist :) there's lots of organisations that has open celebrations outdoors. You can generally buy food (maybe some cakes, hotdogs and that kind of stuff, tho traditional midsummer food is not necessarily on the menu, that's more something you do at home). You can ask at a tourist center where there are some open midsummer celebrations in the area. Sometimes you might have to pay a small fee to get in, it can depend on the place. Generally these types of outdoor open celebrations has music and dance (like the frog song) and maybe some speeches, they might also have invited some local artist to sing a few songs. There can be some other activities too.
So Midsommar is a fun and weird tradition. You can definitively celebrate Midsommar as a tourist! Of course it helps if you know someone and follow along with their family/friends but there are places everywhere in Sweden where they throw a Midsommar party for anyone to attend, and they are usually more traditional with people wearing traditional clothes and more family friendly so not as much alcohol. You can go to these places alone if you dare but I suggest bringing a Swede for translation atleast. Little frogs is one of the most common songs/dances we do but there are a couple of more. We have the same food on the Midsommar table as we do for every holiday with exception of Swedish strawberries and cream for dessert. Midsommar is all about alcohol and getting wasted for about 70% swedes or more but I have fun without too much of it so it's possible!
EDIT: Shared celebrations for almost every Midsommar party;
Swedish strawberries, the same food, alcohol, singing/dancing, booklet of Snaps songs, Kubb, flower crowns.
Yes we eat (not everybody) the same food pretty much. It is historical traditions. It was the food people had. And making it a feast one ate all the dishes at the same time. There are different focus though. Christmas = ham, easter = eggs, and midsummer = herring. Logical due to what was available at different seasons.
What this guy says is true BUT for me and my friends we often just make it into a BBQ party. We gather around the grill and BBQ meat, fish, chicken, vegetables... whatever we fancy. So first the herring and snaps (and songs) ... then BBQ. :)
it's excessive about the queue to the Liquor Store. I was shopping for wine yesterday, Thursday, one person ahead of me in the checkout line.
yes this all happens on midsummer. but from a teenage experience we dont do this we have a party/gathering and drink basically. and play games!
yeah most of the stuff on the holiday food is the same more or less. Its Kaviar on the egg :D its fantastisv, and yeah you eat the cold food first :)
It’s grandparents taking shots grandmas drinking wine
Some people dance around midsommar stången and then we play games like having a spoon in your mouth with an egg on it and doing random games like that
Yes, the food is 85% the same between the holidays. Ham is unique for christmas and strawberries for midsummer, but the eggs and the pickled herring remains.
This is a long one, fair warning.
The frog dance is mostly a kids thing, but adults often join in. More so the parents or relatives of the children in my experience. Now as to why it came about I have no clue really, the only thing I can think of is that it has to do with the frogs mating/migration seasons. In the very south of Sweden the frogs mate from April to June so just in time for midsummer you can usually see little frogs everywhere there's a body of water close by.
The lyrics to the song itself translated go: "The small frogs, the small frogs are funny to see. The small frogs, the small frogs, are funny to see. Then people mimicking frog calls follow and you do the dance thing.
I'm not even going to attempt to transcribe the frog noises ^^
I didn't actually queue for booze this year. The important bit of that sentence being -this year-
You're pretty spot on about tourists not really being to partake. The whole maypole dance event and such is open to anyone usually, but sitting down to eat, drink shots (Snaps!) and sing songs is pretty much strictly friends and family. If you want a genuine sort of version of it at least.
I've seen and used booklets, yes, but it's not like it's a rule. The only issue is sometimes you have the lyrics but half the people don't know the melody because not uncommonly those are older songs. And also you know.. by the end of the dinner some people have some trouble keeping the time of the song itself or at worst reading the lyrics haha
Yes we eat a lot of the same foods. It varies regionally slightly, but I'll list the ones I am used to.
Christmas and Easter are both oven-baked ham, herring, meatballs, small sausages (prince sausages), those eggs you pointed out (Yes it is egg on egg and shrimp). Also, it is almost taboo to peel your potatoes on midsummer because they are so freshly harvested that the skin is tissuepaper thin.
Herring is all the time, commonly on midsummer you have a herring lunch with those newly harvested potatoes I mentioned. I'm slowly learning to like it myself simply to stop being called a child whenever I choose to pass it up ^^
Kubb is awesome - nuff said
The flower thing is true. That is, that it's a tradition at least ;)
Lastly, there are some traditions regarding the raising of the maypole/midsummer pole that I forgot to mention, but this comment is already insanely long so I will end it here.
Happy Midsummer! / Glad Midsommar Dwayne! 😃