page_title: Saint John's Eve
section_title: Sweden
hierarchical_section_title: Saint John's Eve / Traditional celebrations / Sweden
caption_attribution_description: English: Midsummer celebrations at Årsnäs, which was started in 1963 as an intentional community on the west coast of Sweden, near Kode. The ownership of the 15 houses has since passed on through generations among the founding families. The community celebrates Midsummer yearly, starting by dances around the Maypole in the early afternoon, followed by the houses competing in games with different tasks each year, but often including e.g. nail hammering, log balancing, and darts. In the evening there is a dinner at the dance floor by the meadow including the year's first potatoes, soused herring and pickled herring, chives, sour cream, the first strawberries of the season, as well as beer and snaps for the grown-ups. All these images are scanned diafilms originally taken by Karin Aasma and Felix Aasma.
context_page_description: Saint John's Eve, starting at sunset on 23 June, is the eve of celebration before the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke states that John was born six months before Jesus; therefore, the feast of John the Baptist was fixed on 24 June, six months before Christmas according to the old Roman calculation. This feast day is one of the very few saints' days which commemorates the anniversary of the birth, rather than the death, of the saint being honored.
  The Feast of Saint John closely coincides with the June solstice, also referred to as Midsummer in the Northern Hemisphere. The Christian holy day is fixed at 24 June; but in most countries festivities are mostly held the night before, on Saint John's Eve. This holiday is celebrated in many places.
context_section_description: This holiday is normally referred to as 'midsummers eve' or Midsommar in Sweden. Originally a pre-Christian tradition, the holiday has during history been influenced by Christian traditions and the celebration of Saint John, but not as much as to it changing name, as in neighbouring Norway and Denmark. A central symbol nowadays is the 'midsummer pole', a maypole that is risen on the same day as midsummers eve. The pole is a high wooden pole covered in leaves and flowers. Participants dance around the pole and sing songs. A Saint John’s Eve custom involves people visiting holy springs as "a reminder of how John the Baptist baptised Christ in the River Jordan." This a rather new tradition made by youngsters. Other traditions include eating pickled herring with fresh potatoes, often the first from the seasons harvest, served with sourcream and chives, and often accompanied by drinking snaps. It is the biggest holiday of the year in Sweden besides Christmas, and with Sweden being a part of the vodka-belt, getting drunk and feasting all the whole day and night is common.
  One Swedish midsummer tradition is that girls should pick seven flowers from seven different fields. The flowers should then be put under the pillow during the midsummer eve night. This night is supposedly magic and the girl is then while sleeping supposed to dream of her future husband.
  Another tradition common in Sweden is to make midsummer wreaths of flowers.
caption: Dancing around the midsummer pole, Årsnäs in Sweden, 1969.
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