Today was our last day in Dalarna. After breakfast we attended the local, outdoor Midsummer church service. It was held at a Heritage park where all the buildings of a traditional farm were still in their original locations, along with some other old buildings that had been relocated there. A group of musicians accompanied the service and played fiddles, accordions, a guitar, and a trumpet. A choir sang and we all sang along a few times. The pastor discussed several things, all in Swedish. Two things that I was curious about were what he said about Midsummer and what he was talking about when he said “Big bang” several times. My friends told me that he said that during Midsummer the best Bible passages to read were the story of Creation and we were celebrating the perfect creation of our world and the sun. He asked rhetorical questions about whether or not religion had a role in society since we had science. He said yes, religion still has a place and that religion and science can exist together.
After the service there was fica, or midmorning coffee and cinnamon rolls. Then, everyone watched the Maypole be raised. Edon and Ezi helped again. Finally, the pastor called out the songs and we all danced around the Maypole. Ezi filmed the dancing with the Mavic and some of the shots turned out really well. Another person was flying his Phantom at the same time.
In the afternoon we went to the local campground on the lake. It has a slide into the lake. Last year the water level was so low the slide just dumped out onto the beach. This year the water level was much higher and was nearly to the bottom of the slide. The water was cold and got colder as the water got deeper. All of the kids went in and dunked themselves. When the sun was out it was quite warm. As soon as a cloud came, the temperature dropped significantly. The kids played in the lake and at the lakeside for a couple of hours. Just before we left the clouds cleared and it became quite warm. It was the warmest weather of our entire trip to Sweden.
We had dinner with Martin’s parents and then started packing up.
We took a break to check out some of the drone footage the kids and John had of the trip. It was pretty amazing. Ezi is looking forward to editing it when we return home and he has his computer to work on.
Martin’s stepmom showed us the rugs she had made during the winter using traditional tools. They were very well made and came in several different patterns. All were fabulous.
Fun
ReplyDeleteYes!
DeleteA Maypole? It's nearly July 😉
ReplyDeleteThey call it a Maypole, but it is to celebrate Midsummer, which is celebrated on the first day of Summer, lol.
DeleteIt is too cold May 1st for Maypoles here!
Something for me to think about-religion AND science can coexist. Hmmm
ReplyDeleteAnother awesome day
I thought it was an interesting point to be brought up! Then he led the pagan-inspired Maypole celebration :)
Delete