Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/06/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Daniel, The second picture is a real masterpiece. Maybe the rest of the list will not perceive it in the same way, but as a fellow Scandinavian, albeit in exile since 1983, I really understand this picture and the accompanying text. Midsummer is also fairly popular in Denmark, although not as important as in Sweden and Finland for the simple reason that our climate is less extreme and we are further south, so the difference between summer and winter is a bit less dramatic. Nonetheless, some of my fondest memories have to do with bonfires, singing "Vi elsker vort land" around the bonfires, and having a bad headache the next day... Nathan Daniel Ridings wrote: > It's Sunday, I'm still recuperating from Midsummer Eve. > > For those of you who don't know, Midsummer is very special for Swedes. > It's not a Scandinavian thing, it's a Swedish and Finnish specialty. > > What you probably do know about are our long, dark, cold winters. > Midsummer is the opposite pole, but at the same time it's the zenith. From > that day on, we're headed back to the long, dark, cold days. > > Sweden doesn't have a real "national day". Sweden has always been Sweden. > Swedes didn't win their independence from another state. It's been Sweden > all along. What's there to celebrate? > > But Midsummer, a pagan celebration that the Church tried to tone down by > declaring it was John the Baptist's birthday, is THE day that almost all > Swedes celebrate. You could set up a tent on the main street in Gothenburg > or Stockholm and you would not be disturbed. There is no traffic. > > I've tried to capture the two contradictory aspects of the day. > > The bacchanalia: > http://www.dlridings.com/paw2004/26.html > > and the awe of the heavens: > http://www.dlridings.com/paw2004/26alt1.html > > You don't celebrate Midsummer in the city. > > As a curiosa: The majority of men who drown at this time of the year are > found next to the piers, with their zippers down. > > I have more, much more, but it takes a while to recover enough to do some > editing. > > Where is that aspirin?! > > Daniel > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > -- Nathan Wajsman Almere, The Netherlands Mobile: +31 6 30 868 671 General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com