Mid Summer Party

Lifted from Wikipedia: "In modern Sweden, Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day is arguably the most important holiday of the year. The main celebrations take place on the Friday, and the traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole.

The year's first potatoes, pickled herring, sour cream, and possibly the first strawberries of the season are on the menu. Drinking songs are also important at this feast, and many drink heavily.

Traditionally, young people pick bouquets of seven or nine different flowers and put them under their pillow to dream of their future spouse."

Yesterday my Swedish friend C hosted a Midsummer party at Central Park. Though it rained a bit it couldn't keep the revelers away and we had an amazing time. It was fun to do something so different- and C really tried to bring in some of the elements of her culture so it wasn't just another picnic in the park. I know it was a lot of work but worth the efforts as we all had a great time.

Here are our hosts at the start of the party, after they'd taken care of setting us all up with Pimms (traditional English sweet bevvie).

Caroline made the wreaths from wild flowers for all of us- I tried but was taking too long. But she did it in just a few minutes- I guess that's a lifetime of practice.


Of course me and Rose.



We did do all of the things wiki mentions- like eat pickled herring (actually pretty good) and drink schnapps (veerrry strong) and sing traditional songs. We didn't have the maypole- but I did do a lame rain dance to try and keep the water at bay (it didn't work and my embarrassment was for naught!).

And for the record I had a dream about Kanye West (the rapper) and my friend Eric (who is gay) last night- so I'm not sure about the whole 'dream about your spouse' part of the lore!!