How swedes are celebrating the start of the summer

With snaps, smågrodorna and traditional food it is a Swedish tradition to celebrate the start of the summer with what what is referred to as Midsommar, which is Midsummer in English.

For all swedes it is the main event every year together with Christmas and New years eve. After a long winter and a spring that has been ramping up, it is one of these event where many swedes go all-in.

Friends and family are gathered together to take a part of the event which has an unwanted tradition to include rainy weather. The standard joke every year is to refer to bad weather as typical Midsommar weather.
However, it is nothing better then having superb weather with blue sky and sun on Midsommar. That is truly a start of a successful event.

Midsommar traditions with food and activities

in Sweden, Midsommar occurs the Friday closest to the 20th of June every year.

The traditional way of planning a Midsommar event is to have a Smörgåsbord of several different dishes, like a buffé. You always start with the cold dishes like the herring and potatoes. After that you proceed with the warmer dishes which continues to include potatoes and of course the Swedish meatballs.

Throughout the lunch and dinner you snaps of different flavors and typically beer which goes very well with a nice weather and this type of dishes served.

Activities that are performed with a large focus on the kids and includes to dance around a big pole referred to as a Midsommarstång (Maypole). This pole is decorated with green leafs and flowers to make it a true icon used within the Midsommar tradition.

One very popular dance within this event is Smågrodorna where everyone jumps around in a circle mimic a frog together with the song that goes with the dance.

Happyning organizes your Midsommar

Happyning helps you organize your event for Midsommar by making it super easy to invite your guests and communicate everything that is required or a successful Midsommar event.

The Happyning app automatically sends out SMS invites to all guests using the phone number you have in your phonebook.

Select the Midsommar theme from the app and get a beautiful theme website for your guests.

Midsommar around the world

Midsommar is not only an event in Sweden. It is occurring around summer solstice and many countries have Midsommar or similar adopted to there culture and country.

Latvia's Midsommar is the national holiday of the country. And in Norway and Denmark it is also referred to as S:t Hans day.

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