It's Midsummer, Summer Solstice, the Longest Day, St John’s Day, St. Hans Day, Fors Fortuna, Litha, Alban Hefin, Enyovden, Ukon juhla - whatever you call it, it's a milestone!
In the UK, of course, all the pseudo-Druids, Neo-Pagans, hippies and other assorted weirdos head for Stonehenge to celebrate. We'll stay at home, and will probably clink a glass in the garden or something.
Meanwhile, in Sweden...
From the Bilingual by Music website:
Midsummer's Day is one of the most important holidays of the year in Sweden, and probably the most uniquely Swedish in the way it is celebrated.Raising and dancing around a midsommarstång pole is an activity that attracts families and many others. Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover the entire pole. People dancing around the pole listen to traditional music and sing songs associated with the holiday. Some wear traditional folk costumes or crowns made of wild springs and wildflowers on their heads.
Music plays a big part at the Midsummer celebrations. The most famous song sung when dancing around the maypole is Små grodorna [which in English is “Little frogs”]:
The melody originates from a military march from the French revolution La Chanson de l’Oignon (“The onion song”), with the chorus “Au pas, camarade, au pas camarade / au pas, au pas, au pas!” (“In step, comrade”). The enemies of the French at the time, the British, changed the text with condescending irony to “Au pas, grenouilles!” (“In step, little frogs”).Små grodorna in Swedish:
Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.
Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.
Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de.
Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de.
Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,
kou ack ack ack ack kaa.
Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,
kou ack ack ack ack kaa.
English version (direct translation):
The little frogs, the little frogs are funny to observe.
The little frogs, the little frogs are funny to observe.
No ears, no ears, no tails do they possess.
No ears, no ears, no tails do they possess.
Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,
kou ack ack ack ack kaa.
Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,
kou ack ack ack ack kaa.
How bizarre.
We have a far better way to mark the occasion (and the ongoing heatwave!) - with Bananarama!
However one chooses to celebrate, it is worth doing - for after today, the nights start drawing in once more..!
Make the most of it, dear reader.
[Footnote: If some of this seems familiar - yes, I did post about this over at the Dolores Delargo Museum of Camp in 2021]
I went to what was - even then, in the 1950s - probably a rather old-fashioned primary school, and they had us do a maypole dance: once.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we ever had a maypole in the village where I grew up - but then again, in Wales we had St David's Day and all the "Eisteddfod/choral singing/poetry-reading" that went with it, so perhaps it was seen as an "English thing". We did have a May Fair, however - the only time anyone ever ate candyfloss. It's deeply unpleasant stuff! Jx
DeleteAt the risk of perpetuating the not always untrue myth that Norfolk is decades behind the rest of the country, back in the 80s our school had a maypole and every year we'd dance around it holding ribbons, weaving them in ever more complicated plaits down the pole. I loved it!
DeleteYou've been - ahem - dancing around poles ever since! Jx
DeleteAnd Czechs, and Italians, and Scots, and even one from Suffolk once!
DeleteAny pole's a goal! Jx
DeleteSweden seems like a very odd place. And I say that as someone living in California.
ReplyDeleteScandinavia as a whole seems pretty odd to me. And I say that as someone living in London. Jx
DeleteI loved Bananarama, but I’ve never been a fan of the Pseudo Druids or Neo Pagans.
ReplyDeleteThere were thousands of them at Stonehenge today! Anyone would think it was something they wanted to show-off about on Instagram or something. Perish the thought. And who's running their crystals-and-dreamcatchers shop while they're gallivanting around hugging monoliths anyway, that's what I want to know! Jx
DeleteOddly enough I feel like we danced around a maypole one in my elementary(primary) school in like 2nd grade. It was probably supposed to be some kind of cultural exposure event or something. There's also a picture of me around the same time where I had to do a Native Hawaiian grass skirt dance as part of a culture event. I've had to relearn a lot of history as an adult, like how Native Hawaiians were forced to become a U.S. state for the benefit of White plantation owners. Today, Native Hawaiians make up the majority of the homeless.
ReplyDeleteI like some hippies, but I can't stand the ones that try to completely recast the Druids as enlightened vegans or whatever it is they go on amount.
Druids were apparently seers and mystics who possibly oversaw human sacrifices, including people being burnt alive in a Wicker Man. Not exactly "wafting around with flowers in their hair and banging on a bodhrán" or however they like to appear these days... Jx
DeleteI remember doing the German slap dance at primary school.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, I still like to dress like Bananarama! Especially in summer.
Sx
Do you have the 'Nanas-style tousled "big hair" as well, Ms Scarlet? Jx
DeletePS Your school was taking a big risk letting children loose on anything that involves slapping, surely?
My hair is big without any styling, and always has been - I should be grateful, but my hairdresser has to go mad with the thinning scissors to stop me looking like Gail Platt from Corrie.
DeleteWe were good kids and managed not to hit each other!
Sx
Gail Potter/Tilsley/Platt/Hillman/McIntyre/Rodwell/Chadwick/Platt? She has a helluva lot of hair, doesn't she? I hope her real life alter-ego Helen Worth has donated it in her will to the terminally bald. Jx
DeleteWhat. No fish slapping !
ReplyDeleteEvidently, frog-jumping is more fashionable in Sweden... Jx
Delete