In Sweden, we take the summer solstice celebration seriously and have one of the most important holidays on the Friday immediately following the longest day of the year. It's a public holiday and the city centers are abandoned as everyone goes to the country side to celebrate. This year, Midsummer's Eve fell on June 24th and I celebrated with a bunch of Swedes at my friend Ingrid's lake cabin. Here in Washington State, we're far north enough to where it was almost like being home in Sweden and the sun staid up for a long time. I took this picture of the lake around 9 pm. Midsummer Dance by Anders Zorn, 1897 Midsummer is a very old tradition in Sweden and modern celebrations have elements of the original pagan rites to celebrate Freya and Frey, the Norse fertility goddess and god. Everyone gets the phallic symbolism of the maypole we dance around and there's a tradition for both boys and girls of picking seven different flowers to put under your pillow whi...
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