Midsummer celebrations

Isabella celebrated her first Midsummer (or Juhannus in Finnish) in Veikkola. We were invited there by her godmother Jaana and we had a great time. They sang songs and did a play and had a traditional Swedish Midsummer maypole. The actual singing was done both in Swedish and Finnish...kinda like at some Canadian hockey games where the anthem is sung half in English and half in French.




Isabella also had her own little bunch of flowers that she added to the maypole (with a little help from Daddy...and in fact, after he put them on it, she reached over and pulled them out again heehee!). You can see in the second photo of her there is much more of a pulling actions happening with her hand!!

The weather was a little iffy. It had rained on the drive over there but luckily it stayed away once we were there. We were sat outside the whole time so it was of concern but we didn't get wet at all. This was actually my first Midsummer in Finland where it rained!I thought that it was legislated somewhere that the weather had
to be good.

But we were able to enjoy everything and I was even able to take my jacket off at one point when the sun peeked through the clouds for a short time. And Jaana, Leo and her daughter Siiri were able to join in the dancing...if we go there next year, Isabella will be able to join in the dancing too! I just had to add this photo...to the end as Isabella was eating some parsnips (palsternakka) there and although she seems to enjoy them (she finished all that I give her) she still feels the need to make funny faces!!!

We left at about 4pm and picked up Katriina from Helsinki as she was planning to come with us...then we came home. We were supposed to go to another celebration in downtown Helsinki (in Seurasaari- that is an open air museum that has many traditional wooden houses from all over Finland) in the evening but as the time got closer to leave the apartment, the heavens opened and I thought that one celebration for us was good enough! The one in the evening would have been more Finnish (as the one we went to was kinda more Swedish in tradition) and there would have been bonfires and other entertainment...but not sure how well they would have burned in that weather! So Katriina, Isabella and I stayed home while Taneli went to Seurasaari with a couple of friends. So goes another year of Midsummer...the official first day of summer... not the end of summer as Taneli keeps saying. Talk about melancholy!