MIDSUMMER EVE IN LEKSAND
SUNSET OVER LAKE SILJAN--JUNE 25, 2010
Looking back at the history of our friendships here in Sweden dating back to 1965... After we had met and spent time with Birgit and her family and had enjoyed some Midsummer festivities, she introduced us to a family whose father was also a teacher. They, too, invited us to their home, and their oldest daughter, Solveig, took us to another Midsummer celebration where we filmed her with Judy and many others dancing around the Maypole. It's amazing to see the clock turned back 45 years as we watch that movie again...now on DVD to help preserve it. What is even more amazing is that these same village celebrations continue today!
Judy kept in touch with this family over the years. When Solveig married, her first child, Tina, was born the same year as our first child, Bonnie. We arranged for the girls to be penpals when they were teens, and when they were seventeen, we invited Tina to come to live with us for a year and attend high school with Bonnie for their senior year. It was a year of adventures--lots of comparing Swedish and American ways of life. Such exchanges always stretch and enrich those involved.
Tina has returned to the States several times in the ensuing years. She has been active in a Swedish dance troupe that performs, not only in Sweden, but also abroad. Thirteen years ago the group came to Chicago to perform, and both Bonnie and Maia got to spend time with Tina during her visit.
Today we were invited to return to the charming village of Tallberg in the heart of Sweden where we had stayed in a small cabin in 1965. It was in this town that Birgit took us back then to meet Solveig and her parents and siblings in the same family home. (See PART 1 of our Sweden Blog.)
We found the Swedish meal prepared by Solveig and her family to be quite delicious--Some of us even tried and liked the pickled herring and raw salmon with tasty sauces. Tina explained to us each of the foods and the order in which they were usually eaten.
Judy and Solveig
Tina's friend, Egidio, put Mia's 2 year old son, Erik, on his motorcycle!
After the meal we walked down the road in Tallberg to see the little cabin that Birgit had found for Dick and Judy to stay in 45 years ago. It had been updated and looked just as cute as it did back then.
Although there are traditional Midsummer celebrations in most of the villages in the Lake Siljan area, the Midsummer celebration in Leksand is by far the largest in Sweden. There is a unique charm in the small village Maypole raising; yet it is fun to be a part of the hundreds of people celebrating in Leksand. The day before or on the morning of Midsummer Eve, the local townspeople gather to pick flowers and greenery, to cut thin birchwood stems, make wreathes and garlands--all to dress and decorate the Midsummer Maypole. Costumed townspeople arrived in Leksand by church boats with folk musicians playing. The church boats recall former time's lake traffic and how folk from the villages around Lake Siljan together rowed to church on Sundays. Each church boat is about 18 meters long with 20 oarsmen sitting in pairs in the boat.
When the townspeople disembark from the church boats, they form a parade walking through Leksand to the natural amphitheater. We watched the boats from a bridge and then moved to the street to watch the parade go by. From there we followed the parade to the site of the gigantic Maypole raising and watched while the events continued into the evening.
Mia, Tina's sister, and Maia, we think look enough alike to be sisters. They are in the crowd watching the gigantic Maypole being raised. Erik, in the photo below, is Mia's little son. 
The 25 meter high pole, the largest in Sweden, takes 25 to 30 strong men to raise it. The people watching help with encouraging shouts and cheers. This is also accompanied by traditional fiddle music, speeches and songs. Raising the pole takes a long time!
After the Maypole had finally been successfully raised, the folk music began and hundeds of men, women and children formed a very wide circle around the pole to dance the traditional dances. Tina took the children down to the circle, and they all had fun trying to follow what the others were doing! When the music ended we all went back to the village of Tallberg to enjoy looking at the rustic buildings in the late evening light and to watch the sunset from the highest hill and then from a dock in the lake. What a glorious end to a fun-filled day!
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