By Barbara Scott
Staff Writer
Friday, June 17 marks the beginning of the annual MidSommar Fest, this year celebrating the 141st anniversary of the founding of the Maine Swedish Colony.
Midsommar celebrates the summer solstice through authentic Swedish cultural activities including gathering flowers and trimming the Majstang, Swedish dancing, singing, delicious food and story-telling. Festival-goers will also have a chance to visit several landmark museums, listen to the sounds of Swedish music, experience the colorful sight of everyone wearing flower wreaths in their hair and try Viking lawn-bowling on the green. Young visitors will also enjoy painting their own wooden Dala horses.
Midsommar is a burst of color, community and culture — it’s a festival of flowers, food and fellowship. Treat yourself to true Swedish traditions, enjoy the Midsommar Frukost (breakfast) at Thomas Park in New Sweden sit down to the Swedish Supper at Svea Hall, Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church; try the Smorgasbord at the New Sweden School; find your Swedish ancestors, tour the Lindsten Stuga (traditional Swedish colony home); visit the blacksmith shop; relive schooldays of yore at the Snowman School Museum in Woodland; grab a hotdog and ice cream; peek inside the Lagerstrom House Museum in Woodland and view “Old Maine Swedish Farms (video) while visiting the Larsson/Ostlund house on the Station Road. visit the Nylander Museum of Natural History in Caribou and peruse the collections of Swedish Colony naturalist Olof Nylander; — take it all in — it’s summer in the Maine Swedish Colony and you don’t want to miss it.
