Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 12 : Spring 2012 | Page 43

New Sweden’s

Midsommar
by Carolyn M. Hildebrand
Photos by William L. Duncan

Sunshine, cascading shades of purple,
pink, blue and white lupines, birch boughs and
tamarack bring to mind the Swedish celebration
of “Midsommar,” brought with the Swedes in
1870 who settled in New Sweden, Maine, as well
as many other areas throughout the USA. June
21st, the longest day of the year, the summer
solstice, provides a symbol of hope in the midst
of the cold, dark winter.

The first Midsommar
celebration in New Sweden was
held on June 23, 1871, with a
Majstang or Midsummer pole
of two crossbars decorated with
flowers, leaves and garlands, as
well as with the American and
Swedish flags. This celebration
has taken place in past years at
the First Baptist Church and
at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran
Church. For about the last 25
years, Midsummer has been
celebrated at the New Sweden
Museum and Thomas Park.

In centuries long gone,
Midsommar was celebrated as
a fertility festival where it was
customary in Sweden to light fires around the
property on Midsummer Eve to ward off evil
spirits and assure the property owner of good
crops. The summer solstice celebration began
in pre-Christian times and was a day when the
spirits of nature joined the human community to
celebrate the long days of summer. Midsommar is
now a celebration of new beginnings, long days,
family reunions, good food, Swedish costumes
and preserving the music, dance and customs of
our hardy Swedish founders.

In 1902, Clarence Pullen wrote for
the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Company

an article entitled, “In Fair Aroostook, Where
Acadia and Scandinavia’s Subtle Touch Turned
a Wilderness Into a Land of Plenty.” Here he
stated that “Midsummer, which is June 22, is
next to Christmas, the most merry festival. There
are green boughs and festoons of evergreens
and wild flowers about the farmhouse verandas
and gateways in joy of the day, and a public
celebration with music and song and oratory and
a collation is a customary
feature of the occasion. In
all the joyousness of these
festivals the elderly people
are sharers, for the fondness
of the old for the young is a
marked and pleasing trait of
the Swedish character.”
This year, New Sweden’s
Midsommar Festival will
be held June 22, 23 and
24. Activities will begin
on Friday at 9:00 a.m. with
volunteers meeting at the
New Sweden Museum to
gather lupines and other
wildflowers on Carlstrom
Hill, Rt. 161 overlooking
Madawaska Lake. Waterproof shoes and garden
clippers are recommended! The New Sweden
Museum will be open for visitors from 12-4.

A highlight of this year’s event will be 26
members of a Swedish folk dance group from
Orust, Sweden. The costumed dancers and
musicians will spend the Midsommar weekend
performing and teaching the traditional Swedish
dances to willing participants. The Orust dancers
will first be seen on Friday at 6 p,m. at the
Stockholm American Legion Swedish meatball
supper and dance.

Saturday’s events usually begin with
SPRING 2012 43