Midsummer in Sweden

The date

Midsummer Eve in Sweden is always a Friday between 19 and 25 June. In 2027 that is Friday 25 June, with Midsummer Day on Saturday 26 June; in 2028 the Eve moves to 23 June. Visit Sweden calls Midsummer one of Sweden's most cherished celebrations, second only to Christmas, and it coincides with the feast of St John the Baptist and the summer solstice.

Midsummer Eve is not an official holiday, but employers almost always treat it as one. Midsummer Day is a public holiday.

Traditions

Swedes have raised and danced around a Midsummer pole since the late Middle Ages. The pole is decorated with flowers and greenery, called maja, which is where the name maypole comes from. Visit Sweden lists the rest of the day: dancing around the pole, including a dance about small frogs; wearing a flower crown; singing traditional songs, often to accordion; schnapps songs at the dinner table; and staying up for the midnight sun. Placing seven types of flowers under the pillow is said to bring a dream of a future spouse.

The table is pickled herring, new potatoes with dill, and strawberries with whipped cream, or a strawberry cake.

Where to celebrate

Dalarna is considered the heartland of Midsummer imagery, with painted wooden horses and red cottages with white gables. Leksand is said to host the world's largest Midsummer celebration, with close to 30,000 visitors a year, according to Visit Sweden. Highlights are fiddlers, folk dancers, choirs and Sweden's tallest maypole, at Gropen.

Rättvik opens with a parade of horses, flags, garlands, folk musicians and decorated wagons, followed by the maypole raising, speeches, dancing and games.

Skansen, the open-air museum, describes its Midsummer as lasting three days, from morning to late night. It says the information for Midsummer 2027 is still to come, so dates, times and tickets are on skansen.se once published. In the Stockholm archipelago, the islands of Fjäderholmarna, Grinda, Vaxholm and Sandhamn hold their own festivities.

Visby holds a folk festival with sing-alongs led by a traditional Gotland accordion band, maypole dancing and horse-drawn carriage rides. See getting to Gotland for the ferries from Nynäshamn and Oskarshamn and the flights.

Elsewhere, Visit Sweden lists Slottsskogen and Gunnebo House and Gardens in Gothenburg, Sofiero Palace in Helsingborg, and Riksgränsen in Swedish Lapland, where Midsummer is celebrated on skis under the midnight sun when the weather allows.

What closes

Many offices and businesses close on the Friday, and the Saturday is a public holiday. Check opening hours before you plan a museum visit, and buy the drinks for your picnic on Thursday.

Where to sleep

Stay where you plan to celebrate. In Dalarna that means the towns of Leksand and Rättvik, which draw the crowds. In Stockholm, Skansen and the archipelago islands are the public celebrations; see Stockholm. On Gotland, Visby is the base; see where to stay on Gotland and the best time to visit Gotland.