This past weekend Ken and I took a wonderful step back in time, traveling with our good friends Jim and Lynn six hours north to the town of New Sweden, Maine. There we attended the annual Midsommar Festival.Arriving on Friday afternoon at what would be the site of the festival, we immediately spotted the bundles of lupines, picked earlier in the morning and carefully stored in pails of water. They would be used the next morning to decorate the May Pole, part of the Midsommar tradition.
(Lynn is a direct descendant of the first settlers of New Sweden: Her great-grandparents sailed from Sweden in the late 1800's, stepped ashore in New Brunswick, and walked from there to northern Maine, the site of their new home.)
Decorating the May Pole takes about two hours. As you can see, everyone pitches in, tying fresh lupines and other flowers to the pole and making wreaths for it as well.
Swedish singers in full costume, from the Boston area, entertain us with traditional Swedish songs as the pole is being decorated.This is the largest wreath, for the top of the pole. It hangs horizontally from the very tip-top.
After the pole is beautifully decorated, it is carried to the spot where it will be erected. Then the moment everyone has been anticipating arrives: Children in Swedish costumes dance around the Maypole as a fiddler plays traditional Swedish music.
It is a morning of blue skies (punctuated by one brief rain shower), good, clean air, merriment, and fun. Swedes (and others, like us) come from the local Swedish settlements as well as from as far away as Utah and Oregon to attend Midsommar in New Sweden. After attending it ourselves, we understand why. It is a step back in time, a step back to the time of rich folk traditions, neighbors helping neighbors, and an appreciation of the earth's rich gifts.
We hope this isn't our last Midsommar Festival.
Sounds like you had a great time! The fragrance of the flowers must of been heavenly!
ReplyDeleteWow-is all I can say of the photos and the history of the event. I can only imagine how wonderful it was and how welcomed you must have felt there. It must have been nice to step into another era, where there are not the distractions of our lives!I definitely will have to check it out another year.
ReplyDeleteThis is fabulous! What a wonderful time you must have had. We used to have a maypole dance in Hawaii when I was growing up but it was very simple compared to what I see in these photos.
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