What to Expect on Swedish Midsummer (My First Midsummer Experience) - Just a Brit Abroad 

Thanks Johan! So fun to hear that you enjoyed the video! Thought I’d try something a little bit different for this video. Felt like the perfect occasion to do a “Dummies guide to getting started with xx” style clip, so I’m glad to hear that it gave you some chuckles on your Sunday afternoon😆 Thanks for watching - and I’m so glad you’re enjoying the videos. Plenty more on the way. Glad midsommar!! How will you be celebrating this year?!

@@JustaBritAbroad With friends. Each bringing one or two dishes to share. Might be singing involved too :o Hope you and your lady gets some sunshine wherever you spend coming weekend.

@@frilansar fun to hear that you do actually do the singing tradition - will you begin singing every time someone fills up their drink? 😆 Hope you have a fantastic midsommar though, your plans sound great! Thank you - it’s been beautiful weather right?!🤩 I love it when it’s this hot!!

@@JustaBritAbroad I love the weather, but sleeping is problematic when you can't properly air the heat out. We probably "bite the nubbe". It's more about being together than seeing who gets the drunkest.

Good point, gets a bit tricky when it comes to time to sleep, that’s for certain. Take care and enjoy the weather where you can though!

Wow, sounds fantastic! Especially the Saturday BBQ - whattime should I come around😆

Thanks Peter! Fun to hear that you enjoyed it! I put out videos a couple of times a week to try and provide an interesting take on all things Swedish culture from an international perspective, so its always great to hear when someone has found my content enjoyable! I'm glad to hear your celebrations will continue, despite the fact you're in France these days. Always great when these traditions live on and you get to create new and fun memories with friends in other parts of the world. Glad Midsommar! Har en riktig bra dag!

oooh good point Martin! they'd almost do well to change it and celebrate on Midsummer instead right? Its where all the Swedes let their hair down and have a great time!!

@@JustaBritAbroad Have a look at these NEW snapsvisor in a pamphlet you can buy.....ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7cfI2sTEx7k.html

I think that goes for most of us Swedes. June 6 got nothing on midsummer!

@@jensnilsson1507 haha you make a good point Jens! Midsommar is the real day of the Swede😉 I'm not even really sure how you celebrate National Day?🤔

@@JustaBritAbroad Du blir mer och mer svensk, det är precis vår attityd.

Thanks Julle! So fun to hear that you enjoyed my slightly comedic take on the tradition😆 at least most of the facts were accurate, I hope, just told in an entertaining way😂 how will you be celebrating Midsommar this year?

@@JustaBritAbroad Haha yeah it was kinda accurate! I usually spend time with my family on my fathers side on a caravan camping, but due to covid plans change. This time around I have two friends coming over from Stockholm to celebrate! :)

@@leffelantis hahah great to hear😅 shame that the pandemic is continuing to change so many things, but I hope you can enjoy your midsummer plans regardless - sounds fun!

thank you!! glad you found it enjoyable🤗 I completely agree with you though, its a terrific and thoroughly enjoyable tradition! loved your comment about the food though! I must say though, it would be interesting to be able to teleport back in time and experience some of these historic midsommar traditions as a fly on the wall. sounds interesting, to say the least😆

Is it safe in Sweden?

@@Bajarangbal I would say so! as safe as most places in Europe!

Thank you Adedoyin! So cool to hear that you're watching and enjoying my videos. Thank you for subscribing if you do, there's plenty more on the way so its great to know that there's people out there who are watching and enjoying them

oooh good point Kata! This was actually something I didn't know about when I made the video, but its been fun learning about it from people that have filled in the gaps for me in the comments, like you! I hadn't heard the 7 vs 9 theory before though, interesting!!

Thanks Sina!! How will you be celebrating Midsommar this year?!

@@JustaBritAbroad not really, odd year so I aim for a more "normal" midsommar instead!

@@SinaFarhat a good plan indeed Sina!! who doesn't want a bit of normality after the events of recent months right? hope you get the more normal midsommar you're looking for🤗 and that you've been out making the most of the beautiful weather this weekend of course🤩

Oooh good points Hannah! How did I forget to mention the strawberries😱 glad to know what a cultural must it is before I host my own midsommar for e first time too😆😅 how will you be celebrating midsummer this year?!

Roast beef must be regional, I’ve never experienced it on midsummer where I live.

@@christofferahlund2467 interesting! What are you eating on midsommar in your region Christoffer?

@@JustaBritAbroad I be doing nothing, more then being home, covid puts a stop to it. Otherwise it would be picnic at the local folkparken . Many Brits do not understand the weird fetish we have with new potatoes and strawberries. I am from the 70:ties, I remember when potatoes was spongy and if you where lucky you could find some really expensive greens, or fruit in May. The first harvest we ever got was rhubarb and radish and neither of those are sweet and that was often late May. ANd in the start of June, Swedish tomatoes and cucumber some times lettuce existed but it was soo expensive. So of course we went mad over fresh fruit and potatoes that didnt taste stale. My birthday is in May and I have had so many apple sauce birthday cakes, because that was what was left in our food storage. I honestly hate that and herring.

@@hannayoung9657 Ah, its a shame that the pandemic makes everything that bit harder this year isn't it... hopefully it'll look a bit more normal again soon though, so we can get back to a bit more of a regular life again🙏🏻 you make a good point about potatoes though. I'd never heard of färsk potatis before I came to Sweden for example! but I'm with you on the strawberries!! I love strawberries😃hope you had a good birthday though!

Tack Peter! Det samma🙏🏻🇸🇪 you're right, Midsommar is certainly a big deal in Sweden and rightfully so. Its great to see everyone commit to continuing the tradition and really getting behind Midsommar! How will you be celebrating this year?

Yeeeees🤩🙌🏻 thank you!! That’s exactly what I was aiming for haha. It’s my favourite one so far actually, so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it too!! Hope it have you a few chuckles on this Sunday afternoon. Enjoy the rest of your evening!

I laughed my socks off 😂 It's actually really accurate.

@@therealcsing haha yaaay I'm so happy😂

Thanks for the tips Thom! Completely agree that Midsommer is a fantastic occassion and a great opportunity to experience Swedish culture at its best. I've tried matjessill too and I can agree, that's great stuff!

Sounds lovely Erica, glad to hear you're making the most of your celebrations even if its not really what you had in mind this summer sadly. Believe me, you're missing nothing on the weather front though if its any consellation. Its raining like craaaazy here and supposed to continue into tomoorrow. Sooo boring! Would like to experience a sunny midsommar one year. But then again, I guess the weather isn't really what its about right!

such a good point Cecilia! How did I miss the strawberries?!? they're soo good🤩 especially proper, Swedish, sweet strawberries🙏🏻 how will you be celebrating midsommar this year by the way?

Why thank you Roger!🤩 fun to hear that you enjoyed it! Låter som du har en jättetrevlig plan för midsommar det här året! Hoppas att ni har en riktig bra dag då🙏🏻

Tack detsamma 🇸🇪

@@RKMa64 Tack Roger!

hahaha now I want to know ALLLL the juicy gossip Dano hahaha what's the deets? I actually haven't seen the film, only a few clips. Its bladdy mentall though isn't it. Where did they cook that stuff up?😆

@@JustaBritAbroad - Haha! Well, apparently, after the sun goes down and the schnapp's is really flowing, strange rustlings and moans eminate from behind bushes and trees and the last thing girls are going to bed with are 7 different type of flowers! 😂 No idea what mind dragged up that movie but anyone who's seen it will have a VERY disturbed idea of the Swedish "Midsommer". Although, witnessing a load of drunk Swedes belting out songs about little frogs...is disturbing enough anyhow! 😂

@@danosverige hahaha😅 who needs to wait to see their "dream" man in their dreams anymore haha

@@JustaBritAbroad to ma as a half Swede half American (and being aquainted with the directors style/humor) the entire film is one simple and hilarious concept: take all the freaky American myths about Sweden and use in a classic horror trope. He manages to cram in the myths about ”scary socialism” in the form of a weird cult, paired with ”womens lib” and liberal sexual attitudes of course it’s a matriarchy of sex starved women having their way with unassuming chosen young men, the mystic ”heathen/norse” traditions deck the visual out in handpainted folklore on walls and ceilings and wheatfields, and the whole theme is like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring ballet (which in turn was a Russian folklore fantasy with sexual and heathen undertones with a sacrifice at the end), but with added alcohol binging and they even mamaged to get a bear in the coctail! 😂 I saw the film in Inverness in 2019 as I was a month in Scotland, with my American partner who’s spent alot of time here, and we both laughed ourselves silly while the rest of the audience was frightened. Got loads of questions from local teens after: ”is it really like this?” 😂 But the Scotts have problems to with the odd US perception of their culture so they caught on fast. Interestingly many Swedes hate the film bc they don’t seem to get the basis for it. I on the other hand remeber having to debunk everything my 5th grade social studies teacher in NY said about Sweden, (blomd braids in needlepoint bonnets and pinafores, polarbears and blueberries everywhere, she radiating midnight sun, the whole nine yards) to the point it almost got me in trouble because how could American textbooks with photos be wrong? The ”Greta-phobia” is another great example of this mythbuilding of ”cult” culture, ”brainwashing” etc. Which is a truly ironic narrative swallowed by masses of forreign men with issues regarding teenage women. Oh, the actor pkaying the female cult leader is a famous Swedish actor also well known for her comedy work in TV and film with a keen sense of the ironic. I think it was very funny. Probably felt topical for a Swedish filmmaker gone to Hollywood and constantly met with predjudice and misunderstanding. I’ve spent midsummer in the US and really, those ”reneacted” versions by second or third generation expats ARE horriffic and only someone like Jimmy Åkesson could stand it. Totally absurd! Yeiks!

Such a classic, am I right?! That song will never grow old I swear hahaha ps thanks for watching! Hope you had a fun Sunday!

AAhha ha ha haa... that's hilarious... Hell and gore! That is even better than the actual lyrics.

Hahah this is fantastic Åsa! Especially that you wrote alternative song lyrics that sound like the original😆 as you know though, I’m practising my Swedish so more than happy to try and learn the actual version too!! I’ve never been to a crayfish party funnily enough. Will have to try sometime!

Hope you’re going to start using them at your midsummer and crayfish parties in the future😆😆

This version is in my student song book, from ..... 1977! ;-)

@@christopherx7428 Oh, is this version that old! 😲 I've just seen it around the Internet and thought it would be fun to pass it on ( not claiming that I wrote them myself).

hahaha nice try! based on some of the comments I've read on this video, I'm getting the impression that the way you celebrated might have been the more traditional way😆

ooh interesting idea! I'll have to add it to my list, thanks for the suggestion! glad to hear you follow my videos though, thanks for watching!

cool idea Hannah! turned out well by the looks of it🤗 haha fair point, did you see your dream man in your dreams last night?😅

yep, quite right! you make a good point! slip of the tongue there, my bad! thanks :)

Thanks for putting me right Lina! I'd actually never heard of that part of the tradition before - I had no idea these poor girls were expected to perform a high jump too😆 can you imagine though, what a lot of effort to go through to only wake up in the morning with no recollection of anyone appearing in your dream😂

@@JustaBritAbroad hah yeah it's kinda crazy 😂

@@JustaBritAbroad Well actually some people still do it, especially kids. I remember doing it with my sisters when I was younger actually

@@linawahlberg3304 oh right? but I guess that's more for fun than because its serious right?

@@JustaBritAbroad Yeah totally

I actually haven't! Shockingly, I'm not even sure I've heard of it. What's the deal? Fill me in🤗

@@JustaBritAbroad Nubbe is basically schnapps. "Brännvin", often flavoured. If you want to try them I recommend you get the 10 minibottles at Systembolaget called "Svenska nubbar", then you get to try the most classic ones.

@@Asa...S ah okay! thanks Åsa :) I saw someone talk about nubbe in another comment just now and then realised that it must be like "slang" for that or something, so its good to get it confirmed!! thanks for the tips too, that's a great idea!

That’s Mariama! So fun to hear that you enjoyed it. Feeling ready to celebrate Midsommar now?😆

@@JustaBritAbroad Thanks 🙏🙏🙏🙏

@@JustaBritAbroad Yea actually it was fantastic to watched that video thanks🇸🇪❤❤🙏🙏🙏

@@mariamajallowsd you too!

@@mariamajallowsd so glad that you enjoyed it🤩 there's more on the way!

Hahaha good point Ambi!! I’ve had a couple of requests to do a surströmming video but i don’t know if I’m brave enough😱😆 how does it taste out of interest? And how will you be celebrating midsommar this year?

@@JustaBritAbroad If you do make a Surstömming video (which you definately should, they are hillarious), make sure to film it outdoors. Just a friendly heads up...

@@chalphon4907 haha thanks! you're actually not the first person whose helpfully reminded me of this😆 I've heard it stinks your house out for days if you try to bite into some surströmming inside😅 perhaps I'll have to add it to my video list?

Surströmming on Midsummer..? That´s a bit odd. Surströmming premiere in the North is tradionally the third Thursday in August. But it´s of course up to everyone if they want to eat surströmming on Midsummer, Easter, Christmas or any other time.

@@Asa...S Oh, I have friends that eat surströmming at least once a month... their kids love it too. Personally I am fine with once a year.

oh right? you mean the tradition to celebrate midsommar? I wonder where it comes from, like what the backstory is!

@@JustaBritAbroad we've celebrated midsummer since forever, or so. It's basically a fertility celebration, and occurs at one of the two most obvious times to celebrate, the midsummer solstice. The Christian missionaries were very pragmatic when they christened Sweden and basically just badge engineered the old pagan rituals, and tried to get people to stop with the goriest details, like sacrificing live animals etc, and made a cross of that big phallus people were dancing around. Plus, of course, invented back stories. Jól, the celebration of the midwinter solstice, was of course a celebration of Christ's birthday (they didn't even bother with changing the name), and the midsummer celebration was John the baptist's day. Of course that's all more than 1000 years ago, so almost everything has likely changed in the meantime.

@@rasmuswi oh right? thanks for the information Rasmus! how interesting. I figured it had religious roots but I didn't know the exact details of it, so thanks for sharing!

you're right Mattias, the real way to celebrate is to get together with people you love and enjoy time in each other's company. This video was picking up more on the tradition of Midsommar and some of the more typical celebratory moments - delivered in a humorous, tongue-in-cheek kind of way to make it a bit more entertaining to watch. So the purpose was a little bit different, I guess you could say! Have a great Midsommar!

whaaat? mind blown hahaha

@@JustaBritAbroad ikr! 😂 but when it’s pointed out you can’t unsee it and it’s not even subtle at all… What do you think the rings symbolise? 😂

Oooh that's a good question and sadly not something I've experienced so its a bit tough for me to say. But I've always found Swedes super accomodating of people with dietary requirements for example. Can anyone verify for me? Where are my Swedish viewers at!😆glad you enjoyed the video though! this was actually my favourite one yet! hope it showed😅

You choose what you want to eat, noone mind if you skip things. Many Swedes don't like some of the food and just eat what they want.

@@J0Go there we go! that's what I assumed, but thanks for clarifying Johan🤗

People generally want to be good hosts, so if you tell them ahead of time you might see a variety of easy to prepare alternatives for traditional swedish foods, e.g. soyminceballs, a non-dairy sourcream alternative and the like. The main staples of the meal are the new potatoes and the strawberries, so no problem there. Generally there will also be a lot of seasonal veggies as well.

@@eejay1062 ah fantastic! that was my assumption as well! the Swedish hospitality I've experienced here has always been terrific, so I assumed that would be the same in the case of Freeman's question, but I didn't want to talk for you guys😆

hey, a weekend is a weekend right Berth? who doesn't love some time off! hope you have a great weekend regardless!

nope, not at all Markus🤗I think Swedish midsommar is a really fun tradition! we don't have anything similar in England, so its been really fun to explore and learn more since I've been here🤩 I'm looking forward to celebrating this year!

@@JustaBritAbroad There is Celtic Fire Festivals that celebrates during Midsummer in some parts of UK. And they celebrate Solstice. Stonehedge is one of those places. Midsummer in Sweden is also with roots from the pagan side. One of few the Christian Church couldn't "kill for us".

@@Sanniz I've seen the Stonehenge Solstice celebrations actually, really cool!

@@JustaBritAbroad Hopefully I can see it one day 🧡🧡🧡

@@Sanniz ahh its awesome to experience at least once!! I hope you get to as well🤗

Glad you enjoyed it Christina!😆 does it sound anything like your experience of midsommar?😂😂

Wont be a problem for me, since I've only been to Stockholm twice hahaha. But a boat out on the archipelago sounds dreamy. Have you done that before?😃you don't recognise that Swedes like to be punctual? I'm shocked😅 there was me thinking it was something Brits and Swedes shared in common haha

@@JustaBritAbroad no, I was left in Stockholm. The worse Midsummer in my life. I was used to go to the beach with family and neighbours and have a picknick. Find friends and go to the archipelago with them. Then, hmm, sex is a big thing Midsummer night. People are getting drunk and then they have sex, a lot in public.

@@bosse1998 uh-oh, that doesn't sound so ideal! I've heard about some of the more colourful traditions of midsommar though😆

@@JustaBritAbroad the huge thing is the light. It never really get dark. For several years I drove to Båstad and was sitting on the beach and chilled. Watching the sunrise.

@@bosse1998 yeah, there sure is a crazy amount of daylight at this time of year! it takes a bit of time to adjust to when you arrive😆

haha what can I say Åse, if you're going to do it, do it properly😅😉 only kidding! I'll also be staying in the city this year - due to the pandemic - and I guess it'll be pizza rather than herring on the menu this year too😆

@@JustaBritAbroad haha well pizza is yummy, just had homemade. And sure I can.go swimming in the ocean i live in Malmö. Have a kebab or falafel instead of pizza or combine pizza and kebab 🙃😋

@@momma636 I love a kebab pizza Åse! that's one of those inventions that I first found out about in Sweden and will never forget!! haha

Certainly didn’t mean to give the impression anything was one dimensional Elizabeth! It was more designed to be a fun way to inform people about some of the history behind midsommar and how the traditions came to be. I was a bit worried that if I just presented the facts less people would watch through and learn about the traditions. But if you feel like something was one dimensional, please, I’d like to hear how it could have been less so☺️