Midsommar festivities to celebrate Swedish heritage

SWEDESBURG — As summer days grow longer, the Swedish American Museum and Historical Society prepare to celebrate Midsommar this Saturday, June 24 with many Swedish traditions.

According to Trish Woepki, a member of the historical society and a Swedish descendant, the festivities are a time for many to connect with their Swedish heritage, family, and friends.

“If you lived in northern Sweden, the winters are long dark days because there's not much sunlight,” Woepki explained. “In the summer they celebrate the long days filled with up to 20 hours of sunlight.”

While Swedish descendants in Iowa don’t experience the same extremes of sunlight, Woepki says celebrating Midsommar in Swedesburg is more an opportunity to honor Swedish heritage.

“It is a great time to get together,” Woepki said. “We get to listen to Scandinavian folk songs and have fellowship.”

The annual celebration began over 30 years in the small town north of Mt. Pleasant.

“We've had them every year except two years for COVID,” Woepki said.

With such a long standing tradition, the celebration commonly attracts many visitors.

“We have people coming from all over that come and celebrate with us So it's exciting to see people who are from Sweden originally or have some Swedish ties,” Woepki said. “We get a lot of people from Fairfield, from Burlington and Iowa City that come every year with some Swedish background.”

The historical society invites those with Swedish backgrounds and individuals that simply want to celebrate the change in season and experience Swedish tradition.

“Everyone is welcome,” Woepki said.

While the historical society commonly hosts a Swedish breakfast earlier in the summer, this year, the breakfast will actually be a brunch which will kick off the Swedesburg Midsommar celebration at 10:30 a.m. in the Parish Hall.

The brunch will consist of Swedish pancakes with lingonberry syrup, potato kory (potato sausage), ham, homemade pastries, juice and Swedish coffee. The brunch will cost $10 per adult and $5 for children 8 and under.

The celebration will continue with mule-horse wagon rides and a cookie walk from 4-6 p.m. Beginning at 4:30 p.m. the Henry County Cattlemen will serve meals.

“At 5 p.m., we'll decorate the Maystag, which is the Maypole,” Woepki said. “We put evergreen and flowers on this huge May pole that we have.”

The event will celebrate Swedish heritage with special music at 5:15 p.m. followed by the Meth Family bringing in the May Pole at 6 p.m.

“Then we place it in the ground and we do folk dances around the May Pole,” Woepki said.

According to Woepki, every year a family is selected to bring in the May Pole.

“Over the last 32 years we've honored all of the families that came over initially,” Woepki said. “The Meth family didn't come over from Sweden until the early 1900s, but they're very active in our Swedish Heritage Society or Swedish Museum and we wanted to honor them.”

Following the May Pole activities, the Nordland Band, a Scandinavian folk band from Chicago, will hold a concert.

The festivities will continue with an ice cream social complete with strawberries and cookies.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com