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Days of Midnight Sun: Scandinavian Celebration of the Longest Day
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19306 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1991 |
2,018 Words |
| Author
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Eloise Paananen
Eloise Paananen is a food and travel writer based in
Washington, D.C. |
The sun rises at Utsjoki, Lapland, on May 16 at about one in the morning and doesn't set until the 26th of July at around midnight. For those ten weeks in the north of Finland, you can read newspapers, conduct business, chase reindeer, play golf, go to the sauna, and swim afterward--all in uninterrupted daylight.
People from southern Finland, and from many other countries, think so highly of the idea that Finnair regularly schedules flights to Utsjoki for one, two, or three "nights" of midsummer revelry each year. And so, each year, jet-lagged tourists and foreign business people try to make sense of this longest "day," hoping--with the aid of blackout curtains--for a little sleep now and then. They also wonder where everybody else has gone. The answer is: to the countryside, to celebrations of Midsummerfest. Considered the best of the rural festivals, Midsummerfest is marked with dances and bonfires from one end of the land to the other.
"Way down south" in Helsinki, which shares the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska, the sun rises on June 21 at about three in the morning and does not set until ten in the evening. This period of long, even endless, summer days goes on throughout Finland and the entire Scandinavian region until early July. During this time Nordic peoples celebrate with festivals that herald the time of the midnight sun, when bright warm weather ushers in fields of wildflowers, abundant crops of grain, ripe berries and fruits, fresh garden vegetables, and large catches of fish. In nature's splendor, the Scandinavian heart yearns for music, dancing, and romance. Friends and family members, sweethearts and strangers, flock to countryside cottages, fields, and parks to bid farewell to the long, dark, cold winter.
In Stockholm, Sweden, festivities in Skansen park begin in the afternoon and last all night because the sun never goes down. Fiddlers and accordionists play waltzes, schottisches, and polkas, and there are always lively dances for children. There are rock groups, too, much to the consternation of the more dignified participants. The harbor docks are filled with excursion boats festooned with flowers and birch tree branches, which carry bands that play through the night as they ply the sun-drenched waters. Foods often served include smoked ham, poached whole salmon, cake and fresh berries--all symbolic of summer.
The heritage of the Old Countries
As with many European customs, the celebration of midsummer
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