Crayfish Party

When August arrives we Swedes feel the need to stuff ourselves with crayfish - and so we arrange crayfish parties! I was invited to one of these traditional feasts last Saturday, and this is the story about how well that went!

Since we had such a wonderful midsummer's eve celebration at Liv's and Rikard's place earlier this summer, we we're all happy when we heard these two people were going to arrange a crayfish party at the same place! When we arrived the traditional paper-moons were already hanging in the windows!

When I stepped in through the front door it took about four and (maybe) a half second until a glass had magically appeared in my hand. We started with the good stuff - champagne!

Then Tifa gave me something blue - which also turned out to be good stuff!

I wore a black, 50s inspired dress from *cough* H&M *cough*, here seen matched with the necessary crayfish party-hat! You might want to ignore the fact that I'm already on my third drink here...

Our hostess, Liv, showed us how proud she is of her Norwegian heritage!

Usually it's too cold in the evening for outside-eating this late in August, but we were lucky enough to get some really nice weather! Around the table we hung multicolored lamps. And then it was time to eat!

My crayfish might not have been as big as some other people's. But at least they had a nicer color!

La table! Full of candles, wine, food, and happy people!

A bit later. At this time of summer the nights have started to get darker, and with the help of a few blankets we were able to sit outside until the sky was completely black and full of stars!

The candles and the colored lights created a magic ambience...

...and all by a sudden Tifa started feeling holy!

It rubbed off on me too, and for a while we were holy together...Then we went inside and danced and drank more wine! Even though people started going to bed, me and Tifa had decided we wanted to watch the sunrise. So at 6:30 am we took our wine and went down to the water - and this is what we saw...

The water was like a mirror, covered in mist that was moving over the surface in a pink light. We sat on the landing-stage for quite some time, just gazing at the beautiful scene!

Last picture before we went back to the house for a few hours sleep...

Oh yes, there were two cats too!

Blind Penti...

...and the not so blind, but very cuddly, Milton! You should always acknowledge the cats!

Saint Lucy's Day

In Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway we celebrate Saint Lucy's Day - or Lucia - on December 13th. This day is observed in a few other countries, but in Scandinavia we celebrate this day with "Lucia trains". A Lucia train consists of a Lucia - a girl with a crown of candles in her hair - and her following maids - usually wearing glitter or wreaths in their hair, holding candles. Boys in the form of "stjärngossar" ("star boys"), ginger men and nissar (Santa's little helpers in Sweden) also participates sometimes. Wearing white robes, these Lucia trains sings Christmas - and Lucia songs, sometimes offering lucia buns (saffron buns) and ginger bread biscuits to the audience.

Saint Lucy herself is believed to have been a Sicilian who suffered a martyr's death in Syracuse, Sicily, around AD 310. The traditional celebration in Scandinavia though has a lot of pre-Christian elements in it, like the struggle between light and dark, where Lucia is the light bringer who comes during this very dark time of the year up here in the north. The Nordic observation of this day first occurred in the middle ages, but the modern tradition is around 200 years old.

1922

The choosing of a Lucia has also become a tradition. A lot of towns have their own competitions. And since this is a vintage blog, let's take a look at some of Stockholm's Lucias of the past.

Ingegerd Hägg, 1942

Marianne Hylén, 1948

Britta Nordling, 1953

Marianne Lestander, 1959

Ingrid Engström, 1960

As you can see a pretty, blond girl usually wins the title. It's also good if she can sing, since this is part of her job. In my family we usually get up early in the morning to see the Lucia train that airs every year on TV. We light candles in the darkness, make hot chocolate with whipped cream, and eat Lucia buns and ginger bread biscuits for breakfast. A very cosy tradition that puts at least me into the Christmas spirit!

Happy Midsummer!

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate midsummer here in Sweden. An old fertility feast the christians for some reason forgot to remove from the calendar, or make into a holy, christian celebration. What we do this day is dress a pole (it actually resembles a crucifix) with leaves and flowers. This pole also has two round circles hanging high up on both it's sides. Then we put this pole into a hole in mother earth, and dance (especially small children) around this big phallus symbol...

After that we eat lot's of summery foods. Especially pickled herring. Yummy! During this day people have a habit of getting a little drunk too. A big cause for this is the schnapps we drink while we're eating. But before we schnapps, we sing a little song.

I'll be celebrating in Stockholm with my sister and some other friends. Picnic in a park for lunch, and barbecue on top of a roof for dinner...If the weather is good...

Happy Midsummer to you all!

And of course we're always naked when we dance around the midsummer pole...