27" x 6.5"
Paper
SWEDEN

Ah, Midsummer, the beauty of it in Sweden - flowers are in bloom, week after week a new one comes, the water temperature is tolerable and then there is Midsummer Night, in theory the longest day of the year when magical things happen. I always think of Smiles of a Summer Night or Wild Strawberries by Bergman - the magic of the night and the light. But I am rambling on here...the celebration of Midsummer's Eve was, since ancient times, linked to the summer solstice. People believed that midsummer plants had miraculous and healing powers; in Sweden it is a custom for women to go out on the Eve and pick 7 to 9 different flowers to put under their pillow. The idea is at night they will dream of their future spouse (this did not work for me). In Sweden, Midsummer celebration originates from the time before Christianity - it was celebrated as a sacrifice time in the sign of fertility. One traditional thing that happens on Midsummer in Sweden is the dance around the maypole, which is an incredibly phallic symbol of a center pole with two circles hanging on either side of it - the dance is represented on the folding card.