We end our week of Swedish music and celebrations with some misdummer madness. On the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, Swedes circle a maypole, search the forests for flowers and leap seven times, superstitiously, over fences. By far the best thing they do to celebrate the holiday is dance around a field like frogs. The Swedish frog song you’ll see in this video is “Små grodorna”: “Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se…The little frogs, the little frogs are funny to observe. No ears, no ears, no tails do they possess. Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack ack kaa.” The celebrating Swedes hold hands around a circle, simulate the eyelss and tailless frogs — not factual — and then hop hop hop. Any Swede, they’ll tell you — “Små grodorna” = midsummer.
Tag Archives | Midsummer
Sweden’s Longest Day
In the middle of the summer far up north in Scandinavia the days grow longer and longer and people get ready for a party. Known in Sweden as ‘Midsommar,” this mid-summer holiday, celebrated some time between June 19th and 24th, marks the days of the year with the most daylight, the pagan celebration of the coming of summer and, not insignificantly, the beginning of the school vacation. Swedish Midsummer celebrations include dances around a maypole (a “midsommarstång,” or “midsommar pole”) wrapped in greens. Also, Swedish tradition dictates that on the eve of midsummer unmarried girls pick seven kinds of flowers, jump over seven roundpole fences, then put the flowers under their pillows while they sleep. That way they’ll dream about their future spouse.
Oh, and to celebrate Midsummer Swedes dance like frogs. We’ll do that tomorrow.
