Midsummer 2026
Storytime Sunday
Blessed Midsummer to you all!
Since I moved to Sweden, Midsummer has become my favorite holiday. Coming from a country that has two seasons (summer and less summer), living here has taught me the beauty of the changes of the year. Winters can be long and hard, and the Swedes know that once summer comes, it must be appreciated, celebrated and enjoyed. Midsummer is truly an expression of this.
We normally celebrate at my in-laws, and since I began to celebrate the pagan holidays, Midsummer became even more special: Friday with the family, Saturday as a solitary witch. If you’ve been following my celebrations, you know I usually devise a small ritual following the theme of the Sabbath, but for Midsummer, the celebration is all about being outside with the plants. No indoor celebration here; instead, I work in my garden day and night, harvesting, crafting, planning, enjoying the amazing bounty that is my little kingdom. My modest garden is now well and fully established, and its flourishing beauty surprises me each year.
This Midsummer, my husband Mathias had to work, but luckily for me, Vittoria was here. So, we reproduced the celebration - as she put it, “Friday is Kitchen Witch Day, Saturday is Plant Witch Day”. Thus, on Friday, we began our day by going to the supermarket and buying all the holiday food, and spent the day on-and-off in the kitchen. In between letting the focaccia rise and the berry pie bake, we sunbathed in the scorching sun, which blessed us with its heat, drank homemade lemonade and listened to Italian summer hits. As two Mediterranean girlies, enjoying good food, good drink and good company out in the sun is the best way of enjoying life: what more could one need? We sat down to have dinner ridiculously late, enjoyed a true feast, and watched some TV before going to bed.
On Saturday, I got up before the peak of the solstice to have breakfast and prepare for the day. I had a slow, quiet meal listening to the birds, and a bit before 10:24, when the solstice would occur, I went outside to sit in the garden among my dear plant friends, and at the exact time, recited this short poem I wrote:
Sun bright, Sun high
Bless our hands, bless our dreams
That we may create in joy,
Create in love,
And bask in your glory a while longer,
In this our season of bounty.
Once I felt ready, the day could really begin! I started off by making a flower crown for myself, and soon Vittoria, who was in much need of a sleep-in morning, joined me outside. I crafted while she had breakfast in the sun, and once my crown was done, she started hers, and I moved over to harvesting. The plants were brimming with life and energy, loaded with the magical power of the solstice, and pretty much everything I grow was good to harvest: chamomile, valerian, yarrow, marjoram, sage, lavender, pot marigold, mugwort and rose. We both set everything to dry, and after a little lunch break, started the next part of the proceedings: making our very own Maypole! It was my first time making one, and I was very excited. It’s small and done in the mid-European style, more than the Swedish one. Vittoria had the excellent idea of decorating the circle by dividing it into 4 quarters, with ribbons which would represent each of the seasons. While she worked with the ribbons, I decorated a stick I had been saving for the occasion with vines that grow behind my garden.
Late afternoon was gaining on us, and when Mathias came home, he warned us of a potential thunderstorm, so we knew we had to interrupt the maypole and go on our next planned activity: the search for Elder! There is a lovely forested area relatively close to my home, and all winter I’ve been observing it, and was pretty convinced that I had found a large patch of Elder trees, identified by their peculiar bark. So, we grabbed a cardboard box, filled a bottle with milk, got on our bikes, and set out to find the trees before the rain caught up to us. And indeed, I was right - as we walked into the dense forest, we soon spotted the beautiful clusters of elderflowers. There was a large concentration of trees in a particular patch, protected by nettles left and right, and a swarm of mosquitoes followed us wherever we went! First, we offered the trees milk, as is traditional here, and asked for their bounty with one of the many poems one can dedicate to elder trees:
Lady Elder Tree,
Let me take from you,
And you may take from me,
When I return to the forest.
With the help of a stick to bend down the higher branches, carefully leaning into the nettles and asking them to not sting us (long pants sure help), we managed to harvest a lot of beautiful, fragrant flowers, and paid a small price in many mosquito bites. Once satisfied, we left the forest and walked over to the nearby field, as we had spotted some sheep that were out grazing and wanted to say hi to them. We had fun trying to get their attention, and they chewed and stared at us warily. Sheep are so cute! The rain seemed to be holding off, so on our way back, we stopped by a large elder tree we’d spotted on the way, and with our trusty stick, managed to get even more flowers. The last stop was a tiny elder bush next to my house - you can see here my (obviously purple) bike parked with our bounty! And funnily enough, the second we put the bikes inside the garage again, the rain began. Perfect timing.
Time was running late, so we put the flowers to dry, made some elderflower lemonade, and after a much needed shower and mosquito-salve application, we started making dinner again, as Mathias had come home and was much deserving of a Midsummer feast. A perfect day! On Sunday morning, we finished what we’d started - the Maypole is now standing in my garden, and we made two home-wreaths for our friends plus one for my door, concluding the crafting festival that is Midsummer.
Even if it was sad to not celebrate with the family, having Vittoria here made for a uniquely special Midsummer, and every year I am so grateful for the bounty of my garden. The highest joys of life can really be achieved through the simplest things that are already all around us.