Ele vem aí!

O Midsummer já anda no ar por aqui e como não sei explicar a essência deste tão grande evento, resolvi transcrever parte de um texto que encontrei. Aqui vai:

Midsummer - The Longest day

«Midsummer (Juhannus) is my favourite public holiday in Finland. unlike other holidays, on Midsummer you don't get the feeling that you "have to" have a good time. There is a much more relaxed atmosphere. It doesn't really matter what you do and where you are, you are just happy to be at the high point of summer, feeling the magic of the moment.

The traditional Juhannus was celebrated on the 24th of June, but I guess some modern Finn, maybe a union leader, or an IT corporation president, or was it a sausage manufacturer, decided the holiday would be more convinient on a Saturday. [na sexta-feira anterior também é feriado] Hence it can fall on any date between the 20th and the 26th of June.

Midsummer was originally a pagan celebration, but the church has made the holiday more acceptable to the religiously inclined by slipping John the Baptist into the package. And to make the flag makers happier, it is considered a flag day [ao contrário do que se passa em Portugal, a bandeira aqui não é hasteada apenas nos feriados mas em todos os "flag days". E qualquer pessoa pode hastear a bandeira, tendo a maioria dos prédios e residências um poste. Os edifícios públicos hasteiam uma bandeira com um brasão no centro.]

In the old days, young girls used to lean over wells naked in order to see their future groom's reflections. Even if the naked girl didn't see any reflections, she probably ended up with plenty of potencial grooms lurking around the well. Another quaint customwas that women would roll around naked in wet grass to cast some kid of romantic spell. Call me old-fashioned but I believe this custom should continue - in the name of culture of course. Women would also gather seven kinds of flowers or put nine herbs under their pillows believing this to be an aphrodisiac. What what did the men do? What they always do in situations of uncertainty: they build something. In this case they erected giant Midsummer poles.

These days, on Midsummer in modern Finland, half the population waits in huge lines at supermarkets buying at least a year's worth of supplies, waist in huge lines at gasoline stations paying the highest price of the year, gets into huge traffic jams in order to leave the city, so they can relax at their country cottages repairing all the winter damages. The other half gets married.»

Russel Snyder

Por mim, vou passá-lo a Rovaniemi (plena Lapónia, onde se situa a aldeia do Pai Natal) para ver o sol-da-meia-noite, em muito boa e animada companhia tuga. Isso é que vai ser!!...