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Crayfish Party

Events
This year the Crayfish party was held on August 26 , 2016 in collaboration with the American Swedish Historical Museum . We welcomed members and non-members to join us for a traditional Crayfish party and it turned out to be a fantastic summer evening . The tradition of Crayfish party dates back to 1931 , when it was mentioned for the first time by the Swedish newspaper “ Dagens nyheter ”. Many Swedes celebrate this event in the end of the summer . Why it is celebrated this specific time is because it was a law till 1994 that you were not allowed to start fishing crayfishes until the first Wednesday of August .
The venue at the American Swedish Historical Museum was outside and beautiful decorated with big paper lanterns and festive colored light strings . The guests wore hats , bibs and had paper napkins and paper plates all with the crayfish motif . The evening started with some mingling , lovely finger food and some aquavit tasting from Rowhouse Spirits . The guests were then able to enjoy a delicious buffet of Swedish boiled cold crayfishes , Västerbotten cheese pie , meatballs , dill potatoes , schnapps and more .
During the dinner everyone raised their glasses of aquavit and sang traditional Swedish drinking sons such as Helan Går . For dessert it was a traditional delightful strawberry cake . The dinner was followed be a raffle drawing and an auction with prices donated by a variety of sponsors .
It was a lovely evening spent in the party tent overlooking the lush greenery of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park . The guests really enjoyed it and got a beautiful end of the summer .
Author : Maria Didner
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