För Alltid Svensk — 2023 Schedule of Events
June 21 Midsommar —On the solstice at Kennedy Mill Park, pot luck and music with Scott Erikson (from last year) providing the entertainment for us. 5:30 P.M. Bring a dish to pass.
July 11—Gustav Anderson House Lunch and tour of Chisago Lakes Lutheran Church —a historic Swedish church in Lindstrom, MN People need to sign up by June 14.
August 1 Field Trip to the historic Grantsburg area for our annual August picnic. Bag lunch then stops will be at the Big Gust and the Madame Framsted memorials, then a stop at the Burnett Cheese Factory for some of their extra special goodies before heading home. 11AM
September 7th “a Thursday” — Pea Soup & Pankaka Supper Vice President Marv has reserved the beautiful park at Clear Lake for us. 5:30 –7 PM
A Busy October —4 & 7—-A Morning Fika (Wednesday this year) at the Park with kanelbullar—it was fun to have a morning event with coffee and rolls, we will do it again and hope for the same beautiful weather. Michael Park at 10:30 AM.
Special Event: Fika hosted by Rachel at the Luck Museum on Saturday October 7 with all sorts of delicious Swedish treats. We are thinking that as a club we will promote both events on our 2023 calendar because the only thing better than one Fika is two Fikas in a week. $10.
November 7—-Film at the Amery Theater. The theater now rents to groups for special showings. Film to be decided. The only cost to members is $5 for a soda and popcorn.
December 13—-Lucia Program —Rachel is working with the Evergreen Village to host the program at that location again.
Thanks Rachel, Sheryl, and Bruce for all the wonderful ideas. Stay tuned for updates to the schedule.
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June a favorite Kubb Night
Kubb is a traditional outdoor Swedish game that is great fun for families, children or people who take the game more seriously. These rules are "friendly" rules and don't have every tiny caveat that can be imagined. However, they should cover almost all situations that crop up during normal games.
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Swedish Meatball Team
The awesome Swedish Meatball team meets annually just before Midsommar to make meatballs for the Midsommarfest. Besides making meatballs, all participants enjoy our famous meatball lunch.
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Meatballs are as quintessentially Swedish as it gets. In their most traditional form Swedish meatballs (köttbullar) are made of ground pork and beef, cream, bread crumbs, egg and onion, and are served with a light gravy, new potatoes and lingonberry jam.
Of course with every important team there are awards and 2019 was the year to recognize some of our excellent team members. Click on PDF to see our awards.
The Story of Our Midsommar Pole - Midsommarstang
2011 - 2019
For the first several years we cut a large aspen or spruce or birch tree for our Midsommar. A fresh cut tree is exceedingly heavy, and even heavier when one adds the birch branches and the flowers. The weight of these trees made it particularly dangerous to try to raise it up without any one getting hurt. We had some close calls.
At the end of our celebration the pole was cut up for firewood.
A visitor from Sweden suggested we do as they do in Sweden and have a reusable pole.
So combining the idea of a reusable pole with a way to make the whole operation less dangerous, member Dave came up with a new midsommarstang design. And thank you Dave it worked wonderfully.
So our member Dave Clausen took her thoughts to heart and invented and built a pole that not only could be reused year after year but that fit into a special base that would make raising the pole simple and not dangerous to those helping with this effort.
Three scenes on video, decorating the pole, finishing with flowers and the simple quick raising of the pole. And then three photographs of the pole 2018 Midsommar.
Our own folk art painter Diane Anderson decorates the new Dala Häst for Children
at Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. This is the official dedication 11-09-2013
At the centre of the traditional celebrations is the maypole, in Swedish called the Midsommarstången. And if you were thinking there's something rather phallic about a tall pole with two large hoops at the top, that's sort of the point -- many people believe it originated as a symbol of fertility.
Others say the shape has its roots in Norse mythology, and that it represents an axis linking the underworld, earth, and heavens. Whichever story you choose to believe, there's no denying it's a little strange to have a festival that boils down to erecting a large pole and dancing around it...
