Celebrate Midsommar like a Swede
A full guide to all the essential elements plus 12 recipes and a song book (sånghäfte)!
The Swedish holiday of Midsommar is just around the corner, and I couldn’t be more excited! The flower crowns, the food, the endless day light—it’s all so magical.
Midsommar is celebrated on the Friday closest to the summer solstice, between June 19th and 25th. There are many different theories as to how it began but we do know the tradition started centuries ago. The holiday is incredibly popular, arguably as much as (or more than) Christmas.
I’ve now spent nine Midsommars in Sweden, three of which I’ve hosted myself. So, while I’m not a born-and-bred expert, I definitely know my stuff! And trust me, if I ever deviated from tradition—even a little bit—my Swedish friends would never let me live it down. So, without further ado, here’s my guide to celebrating Midsommar like a true Swede!
Small caveat: Most of my friends are from Stockholm, and we celebrate mostly around Stockholm, Uppsala, or Östergötland. There may be regional differences, but this is how we do it.
Essential Elements of a Great Midsommar:
Be “På Landet”
Swim
Make Flower Crowns
Weather and Clothing
Dance Around the Midsommar Pole
Play Games
Herring Lunch
Drinking Songs
Dinner on the grill
Watch the Sunrise
BE “PÅ LANDET”
A critical part of Midsommar is getting the hell outta dodge. Leave the city and head out into the countryside. A surprising number of Swedes have second homes in rural areas. This is thanks to Sweden’s economic prosperity over the last century and its relatively low population compared to its size. Sweden is roughly the size of California and just slightly bigger than Japan, yet it has only about 10 million people — while California has 39 million and Japan 124 million. That means there’s plenty of land and lots of cabins (stugor).
Swedes also love and respect nature, especially when the weather is good (which, let’s be honest, is for approximately five seconds a year). Midsommar is a chance to get out of the city and celebrate surrounded by nature. For those who can’t leave the city, there are often celebrations in parks and green spaces. Bottom line: to have a great Midsommar, GET OUTSIDE!
SWIM
I’d argue this is the least essential element of a great Midsommar. While I love swimming on Midsommar and try to squeeze in a dip at least two or three times during the day, having access to a body of water is definitely a luxury and sometimes just not possible. Not being able to swim won’t ruin your Midsommar — but if you can, you really should!
MAKE FLOWER CROWNS
It simply isn’t Midsommar without a flower crown. And the best part? Flower crowns are for everyone—guys, girls, babies, all genders and ages! That said, it’s usually the girls who put in a bit more effort (isn’t that often the case?). For a while, there was a trend in Stockholm of buying ready-made crowns from florists. They’re beautiful, sure—but nothing beats the wild, slightly wonky charm of one you’ve made yourself from flowers you picked that very morning. Homemade crowns always have a little extra magic.
There are lots of ways to make a flower crown. The most common method uses green florist wire, but you can also braid the flowers together for a completely natural version. You’ll find plenty of tutorials on YouTube and TikTok, but here’s my best tip: pick way more flowers than you think you’ll need. Trust me.
WEATHER AND CLOTHING - kläder efter väder
Nothing says Midsommar like rain! Wait—doesn’t Midsommar mean midSUMMER? Shouldn’t it be, you know, sunny? Ha! You’d think that. But no. You’re wrong. This is the Nordics, after all. It wouldn’t be Midsommar if it didn’t suddenly start raining at some point. Maybe the morning was beautiful, so you set the table outside—and then it pours just as you sit down to eat. Or maybe it rains all morning, so you set up indoors, and by mealtime it’s suddenly sunny—and everyone decides they absolutely have to move outside.
Regardless of the forecast, you’ll want to dress light, summery, and kind of nice. Midsommar isn’t formal, but you’d never wear sweatpants. You have to put a little effort in. For men, that usually means slacks or linen pants with a light-colored button-down or polo. If it’s hot, shorts are fine—just not cut-offs or basketball shorts.
For the ladies, a summery dress is perfect, preferably white or floral patterned. This is definitely not the time for dark clothes! If dresses or skirts aren’t your thing, follow the same advice as for men. Whatever you wear, just try to stick to light colors.
Extra points all around if you have a folkdräkt (folk costume) and wear it—though those are usually only worn by people with a connection to certain regions. If you’re unsure about the protocol, consult your nearest Swede. If you’re not close enough to a Swede to ask, then you probably shouldn’t wear one.
DANCE AROUND THE MIDSOMMAR POLE
The Midsommar pole is the iconic symbol of the day—a tall, cross-shaped pole decorated with birch leaves, flowers, and often a yellow-and-blue ribbon, with two wreaths hanging from its arms. Usually sometime in the afternoon, Swedes gather to dance around it. Most people attend a public pole raising rather than setting one up themselves.
The dances are simple, joyful, and familiar to every Swede. Every person knows the words and the moves by heart. These dances aren’t just for Midsommar; they’re also performed at Christmas around the tree.
GAMES
Midsommar is a looong day. I mean it is literally the longest day of the year, and the celebration goes all day—and all night. Part of the fun? Games! Yard games are super popular, with one of the favorites being kubb. It’s kind of like beer pong, but played on the ground with wooden pieces—and without the alcohol. So not very much like beer pong. But, also, kind of?
Besides casual yard games you can play whenever, there’s often a more organized competition called femkamp. It’s basically a pentathlon, but a bit more laid-back. Usually, people split into teams and compete in five different party games. Here are five of my favorites:
Musical Chairs: A classic everyone knows. It can get surprisingly competitive when adults who’ve been drinking are involved.
Cookie Face: This one’s a relay. Each team member lies down with a cookie (Oreos work great) on their forehead. Without using their hands, they have to wiggle the cookie down into their mouth. Once one person finishes, the next teammate goes. First team to finish all their cookies wins.
Scavenger Hunt: Make a list of things to find or photos to take, assign points, and set a timer. Let the hunt begin!
Egg Toss and Egg-in-Spoon-in-Mouth: More classics! Egg toss is simple—two people toss an egg back and forth, taking a step backward with each toss. The last team with an unbroken egg wins. Egg in Spoon in Mouth (I’m sure it has a better name!) is a race where you balance an egg on a spoon held in your mouth and run to the finish line without dropping it.
Flip Cup: I love flip cup. It’s fast-paced and exciting. While it is usually a drinking game, you can totally play it with water for a non-alcoholic version. There are a million different versions but here is one I like: Set up a table across the yard with cups lined up, one per team member. Each person runs, drinks their cup, flips it upside down on the edge of the table, then flips it back upright before running back to tag the next teammate. It’s basically a relay.
HERRING LUNCH - sillunch
The running joke in Sweden is that they eat the same exact food for Easter, Midsommar, and Christmas. It’s not really a haha kind of joke—more like, this is really true, wow we do eat almost the same things for all the major holidays. The following list isn’t exhaustive but hits all the necessary high points.
For transparency’s sake I posted a lot of these recipes to my website last year and they are hyperlinked. If you want to have all the midsommar recipes in one place, or just generally want to support my work, then please consider subscribing. It’s US$5 a month and paid subscribers get access to all my paywalled recipes as well the ability to comment and access to the chat.
Drinks:
Aquavit* – there is no midsommar without aquavit.
Beer – Swedish food goes best with beer, imo.
Elderflower Cordial* – Elderflower season peaks right around midsommar making elderflower cordial a natural non-alcoholic alternative.
Food:
Pickled Herring* – usually at least a couple different varieties. There is no midsommar without herring.
Silltårta – a cake made of herring! Not as weird as it sounds. It’s usually layers of pickled herring, crème fraîche or cream cheese, and rye bread, often flavored with red onion and dill.
Skagenröra* – Swedish shrimp salad.
Gubbröra – not as popular as Skagen but one of my boyfriend’s favorites. Great if you loved pickled herring.
Salmon – gravad lax* (cured salmon) is the most common, but you’ll often find multiple types on the table including hot smoked and cold smoked.
New Potatoes – the small, thin-skinned potatoes in season in late spring and early summer. They’re boiled with lots and lots of dill. These are essential.
Sour Cream – a must-have with the potatoes and herring.
Savory Pie/Quiche – not every midsommar table has a “paj,” but if there are many people there, you’ll probably find at least one, usually flavored with Västerbotten cheese or vegetables.
Bread – traditional breads are the most popular, including rye breads like kavring* and hard breads like those from Wasa. There should be at least one type of bread and one type of hard bread on the table.
Butter – can’t have bread without butter.
Cheese – at least one large wedge of cheese should be on the table. Popular choices include Västerbotten, kryddost, or prästost.
Dill – dill, dill, and more dill. Everything should have dill in it or on it.
Dessert:
Whatever you have for dessert, it should be made with strawberries! Strawberries and Cream Cake* is very popular, but you can also keep it simple and serve strawberries with vanilla ice cream* and whipped cream.
DRINKING SONGS - snapsvisor
To wash down all the herring and potatoes, you need aquavit! Sweden has a long, rich tradition of drinking songs. Spritmuseet, the Spirit (alcohol) Museum in Stockholm, has so far collected over 12,000!
Snapsvisor are sung at all the major holidays and pretty much whenever you want to have a good time. The tradition is kept alive by the universities, which have a strong culture of drinking songs and formal dinners/balls.
DINNER ON THE GRILL - grillmiddag
So you’ve eaten your fill of herring, drank aquavit until you’re cross-eyed, swam, danced around the midsommar pole, and competed in multiple games. What more do you have to do?? Eat more, of course!! The midsommar meal is usually served as a lunch, so you’re definitely going to need dinner.
Most people do a simple meal of roasted meat, some sides like salad and potatoes (yes, more potatoes! There can never be enough potatoes!), and some sort of sauce (béarnaise, for example). Swedes love a good sauce.
WATCH THE SUNRISE
If you don’t have kids and aren’t a child yourself, midsommar is the time to stay up all night long. Sunrise (if the sun sets at all) will be in the wee hours of the morning, and I highly encourage you to stay up to watch it. It is absolutely magical.
Midsommar is a chance to celebrate summer, eat, drink and make merry. If you’re doing those things then you’re doing it right!
Xoxo,
Cecilia
