Midsummer in Finland

For the festive celebration we visited our dear friends near by, 10 adults and 5 dogs – it was a truly warm hearted event. Midsummer is a Scandinavian tradition that dates back to pagan years, the celebration of the coming harvest season after a long winter. In the North the sun does not set at all, around here (greater Helsinki area) we have about 2 hours of semi darkness during this particular night. I love the light around Juhannus at night, no shadows at all but still brightness, magical.

This year we were lucky to have warm weather conditions in Helsinki. Juhannus – as Finns call it – is funny that way, even if we have summer like weather before the end of June (midsummer is close to Summer Solstice) most often temperatures drop below 10 C for Midsummer weekend. Lucky for us, not this year.

Food wise a typical Midsummer eve contains seasonal goodies like new potatoes with dill and salted butter, salmon, fresh salads, and the must have strawberries with whipped cream for desert. These days the menu is wider, BBQ’d steaks, veggies, baby carrots, the main point is on seasonal and fresh delights. It’s a truly wonderful feast and most Finns spend this weekend in their cottages most probably beside a lake.

Funny enough the absence of a lake came up during our evening conversations too, even though the place we were at was the least lacking anything 🙂