What is Midsummer Day?
Midsummer celebrates the summer solstice period, the time of the longest days in the northern hemisphere. In Sweden and Finland it is one of the biggest holidays of the year, often compared to Christmas, with families leaving the cities for summer cottages, dancing around a flower-decked pole and sharing a table of herring, new potatoes and strawberries. The Åland Islands, which belong to Finland and speak Swedish, keep a maypole tradition of their own, and in both countries the cities become quiet as people leave for the countryside.
In Estonia and Latvia the festival is called Jaanipäev and Jāņi. It is celebrated with bonfires, songs, wreaths of flowers and oak leaves, and in Latvia with caraway cheese and beer, and with the custom of staying up through the short night. The night is associated with folk beliefs about magical plants and the search for the fern flower, said to bloom only on this night. Lithuania marks 24 June as the Day of Dew and Saint John, with its own bonfire and wreath traditions.
Why it is observed
The feast has pre-Christian roots in solstice celebrations across Europe, which were later linked to the Christian feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist on 24 June, six months before Christmas. Sweden fixed Midsommardagen on a Saturday between 20 and 26 June in 1953, moving it from a fixed date in June, and Finland followed in 1955, so that the holiday always falls on a weekend. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania kept 24 June. In Latvia the Jāņi festivities were discouraged during the Soviet period, and a 1990 law named Līgo and Jāņi among the public holidays again.
How the date is set
The date depends on the country. In Sweden and Finland, Midsummer Day is the Saturday between 20 and 26 June (26 June in 2027). In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania it is fixed on 24 June, the feast of Saint John the Baptist, and the festivities begin on the evening of 23 June.
How it is observed
Midsummer Day is a public holiday in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Åland Islands. In Sweden and Finland the preceding Midsummer Eve is treated as a holiday in practice, so shops, banks and many offices close on the Friday, alcohol shops are shut and public transport runs a reduced timetable. Travellers should book transport and accommodation early. In 2027 the Saturday date is 26 June in Sweden and Finland, against 24 June, a Thursday, in the Baltic countries. Pay and time off depend on national law, collective agreements and the contract.
Sources
Åland Islands
Estonia
Finland
Latvia
Sweden