Ella & Otto: Midsummer - longest day of the year

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Summer in Sweden is short.

It starts showing its face in May and explodes into life in June. The summer has to hurry to get things done before the nights turn cold in September and everything stops growing.

At Midsummer, the Swedish summer is lush green and bursting with chlorophyll, and the nights are scarcely dark at all. In the north, the sun never sets.

At Midsummer, many begin their five-week annual holiday. Midsummer eve is always celebrated on a Friday, everyone leaves town, everything closes and the streets are suddenly spookily deserted.

Midsummer is an occasion invested with a certain nostalgia.

Deep inside, Swedes are all agreed on what it should look like and how it should proceed.

People often begin the day by picking flowers and making wreaths to place on the maypole, which is a key component in the celebrations. The maypole is raised in an open spot and traditional ring-dances ensue, to the delight of children and some adults. Teenagers tend to stay out of it and wait for the evening's more riotous entertainment.

A typical Midsummer menu features different kinds of pickled herring, boiled new potatoes with fresh dill, soured cream and raw red onion, spare rib or salmon, and for dessert the irst strawberries of summer with cream. The traditional accompaniment is a cold beer and schnapps. Every time the glasses are refilled, singing breaks out anew. Swedes like drinking-songs.

On their way home, girls and young women are supposed to pick seven different species of flowers and lay them under their pillows. At night, their future husbands appear to them in their dream.

Legend has it that the night before Midsummer's Day is a magical time for love. Like Whitsun, Midsummer is a popular time of the year for weddings.