#finnish midsummer

[cryptidtumbleweed]

Hyvää Juhannusta

Happy Midsummer

[finnishhockeyelf]

Hi this might sound super dumb but I’m not from Finland and have only briefly heard about Midsummer, could you explain to me like what it is and how it works/what you’re supposed to do, thanks!

Hi!! This is not dumb at all, I'm glad you asked ☺️

As you most likely know the thing about midsummer (or juhannus as we call it) is that it's the longest day of the year in the north and the sun goes down very late if at all. It's celebrated always in the weekend of that week when the longest day is.

We have traditions like lighting bonfires in the midnight and people gather to watch them and of course midsummer sauna is a must. There are some traditional midsummer enchantments i.e. if a girl picks up 7 different flowers and sleeps with them under her pillow, she'll see her future husband in her dream, or if you look into a well at midnight (preferably while naked) you can see your future husband there or you can run around the sauna three times at midnight (naked again of course) and then look into the fire box or a well and then you'll see you're future husband. These are old folktales but some people still do these or variations of these more as a joke. Also because most of the flowers are starting to bloom around that time it's common that people go pick them and make wreaths. Almost everyone goes to a summercottage with friends/family and it's common to do bbq (not as hc as in states) and eat and drink well. It's kinda a party and people who stay in the cities usually go to clubs and there are many festivals/events made for just midsummer. Some people get very drunk and since many finnish summercottages are on a lakeside, someone always unfortunately drowns, and every year the biggest papers announce the number of deaths by drowning that midsummer. Hmm what else... common activities to do in the cottage (while waiting for the sauna to heat and the food to be ready of course) are playing darts or mölkky or go swimming or fishing. I think that's all I can think of! Hopefully this was at least a bit useful haha 😊🌸

[runoutfree]

So excited for midsummer and staying up all night as the sun barely goes down, excited for the lakeside sauna good food happy people the feeling of being careless and free

[suchapleasuretoseeyou]