Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/06/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> 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 > > Brings back fond memories of a place on your westcoast during midsummer.Fjelbacka? thanks for sharing simon jessurun