Midsummer
Why do we celebrate Midsummer? When is Midsummer’s Eve this year? The celebration of festivals and folk traditions among the people of the Nordic societies is one of Nordiska museet’s areas of expertise. Here you can find out more about Midsummer celebrations based on the museum’s collections and expertise.
How long has Midsummer been celebrated?
Midsummer has been celebrated a long time. In rural, pre-industrial society, Midsummer marked a turning point in the working year. Although little is known about the earliest celebrations, Midsummer Night was believed to be full of magical powers and supernatural beings.
It is not known whether Midsummer was celebrated before the Christianisation of Sweden or whether it had a pre-Christian counterpart linked to the summer solstice. One of the earliest written sources is Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, from 1555, by Bishop Olaus Magnus, who describes people of all ages gathering to dance by the light of numerous bonfires on the eve of St John the Baptist’s Day. Midsummer bonfires remained part of the tradition well into modern times.
The way Midsummer is celebrated today dates largely from the mid-19th century, when the middle classes popularised dancing around a leafy Midsummer pole in the shape of a cross.
Midsummer is, alongside Christmas, perhaps the most important festival in Sweden. While Christmas is mainly a family celebration, Midsummer is often celebrated with friends and wider social groups.
In Finland, too, Midsummer celebrations play a prominent role as one of the year’s most important festivals. Midsummer is celebrated in Finland with saunas, Midsummer bonfires, and meals featuring new potatoes, herring and the first strawberries of the year. In Norway and Denmark, the day is known as St Hans’ Day and the celebrations are somewhat more subdued.
The Midsummer pole
The leafy Midsummer pole, Midsommarstången, is the most recognisable symbol of Midsummer celebrations. Historically, it’s linked to celebrations of spring and growing vegetation in northern Europe. The older Swedish name majstång can be compared to the English maypole, but the word maj comes from the Swedish verb maja, meaning “to decorate with leaves”, rather than from the month of May. The Midsummer pole was probably introduced to Sweden from Germany during the Middle Ages.
The leaves and greenery are connected to hopes for fertility, successful crops and harvests. This should be understood in the context of the farming society as there is no historical evidence in Nordiska museet’s archives that the Midsummer pole was understood as a phallic symbol.
The earliest depictions of Midsummer poles appear in Suecia Antiqua by Erik Dahlberg, published in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The poles were probably used by students, called djäknar, and farmhands, who travelled through towns and villages singing “May songs” while asking for food and money.
Dancing around the Midsummer pole has probably taken place since at least the 19th century. One example is Små grodorna, Little Frogs, first published in a songbook in the 1920s.
What do people in Nordics celebrate, and how?
As a museum of cultural history, Nordiska museet documents everyday life and festive occasions in the Nordic region. For example, we research: What do people celebrate, and how? What do the traditions and rituals of yesterday and today look like? And what role do they play in our social life?
We have been gathering knowledge about traditions since the late 19th century
Since the late 19th century, we have been documenting and gathering knowledge about traditions and rituals in people’s everyday lives and celebrations, which represent festivals and traditions. This knowledge takes the form of artefacts, photographs, folk memories and transcribed interviews featuring examples of rituals and traditions.
We have also collected and documented this material through fieldwork (that is, documenting celebrations on site), sending out questionnaires, interviewing people and, more recently, through digital collections.
Traditions change and are dynamic
Over the 150 years that the collections have been in existence, there have been enormous social changes in Sweden and the Nordic region. Traditions and social patterns are also dynamic and change: traditions are born, transformed and evolve in line with people, the times and the media. We continuously analyse the material in the light of both contemporary processes and historical circumstances.
Many factors shape and change celebrations
In short, it can be said that celebrations today reflect a multitude of influences from past social structures, from our own time, from migration, as well as social, economic and technological change.
Festivals and festive celebrations in the Nordic region are strongly influenced by the Christian faith, changes in society and values. Further factors include folk and supernatural- beliefs, folk religion and folk values that can be traced back to Nordic peasant society.
Over the 150 years that Nordiska museet has been gathering knowledge about traditions and rituals linked to festivals and special days of the year, there have been enormous social changes in Sweden and the Nordic region. Traditions are born, transformed and evolved in tandem with time and it’s people.
Ritual?
Over the past 150 years, research perspectives and concepts have also changed. A key fundamental concept is that of ritual. This refers to the practical observance – what people do in connection with a festival, tradition, specific day, time of year or event. Such as eating semlor, hiding Easter eggs, lighting candles in cemeteries or going ‘trick-or-treating’.
Rituals often involve symbols, such as the Christmas tree, the Midsummer maypole, waffles and semlor, or, for that matter, the crisps and dip enjoyed during Friday nights for the ultimate “fredagsmys”.
Tradition?
You could say that a ritual becomes a tradition when people attach particular value to the ritual and the celebration, without these necessarily having to be particularly old or widespread.
This definition, too, reflects the perspective of academic research. However, in everyday speech, the terms ‘ritual’, ‘tradition’, ‘festival’ and ‘custom’ are often used interchangeably. When we talk about traditions here, we are generally referring to rituals that are particularly valued; Christmas celebrations are one example.
Religious festivals
Another important term is ‘festival’ (högtid), which refers to rituals that are more closely linked to religious calendars. In the Nordic countries, the Christian calendar has dominated, but other religious calendars play an important role as well.
The boundary between religious calendar rituals and secular rituals appears to be becoming increasingly blurred, reflecting the secularisation of society. Most people in Sweden celebrate religious festivals without paying attention to their religious connection.
Annual festivals and life-cycle celebrations
In addition to the church calendar, festivals have historically been shaped by the rhythm of the farming year and agriculture. These are known as annual festivals or calendar rites.
Many festivals are linked to the human life cycle, where church rites have been, and remain, of great significance.
However, as society changes, so does the significance of these rituals. Although many people are still baptised today, it is not uncommon for this to take place through non-church naming ceremonies.
Ever-changing and dynamic
One of the most important insights into rituals and traditions to emerge from research is that they change. Certain particularly transformative social changes have left a clear mark on both everyday life and on rituals and festivals.
Perhaps the most significant from a cultural-historical perspective are the role of the church, as well as urbanisation, democratisation, the welfare state and the pursuit of social justice.
Contemporary life and tradition
As the Nordic countries became increasingly urbanised, economic conditions changed. People were no longer producing goods simply to provide for themselves. The family was transformed into a unit of consumption, able to purchase all the goods marketed in connection with festive occasions.
Traditions and festivals follow people’s movements between communities. Some are upheld, others fade away, and some take on a different meaning.
