Fun with a Swedish flair in Geneva
What's not to love about a combo plate of Swedish meatballs and crispy fried herring, with sides of grilled onions, cold pickled beets, new potatoes and limpa bread? Pass the sour cream and butter, please.
Swedish food - including pancakes with lingonberry sauce, and almond tarts called "maraziner" - was one of the major attractions Sunday at the 104th annual Swedish Day festival at Good Templar Park in Geneva.
People enjoyed traditional dishes while watching others dance around the Maypole or listening to the Swedish American Children's Choir or an ABBA tribute band.
Of course, one did not have to be Swedish, or even Scandinavian, to enjoy the event at the private park. The Midsommar Festival is one of several public events the International Order of Good Templars, who own the park, put on.
"I'm joined by my daughter Grace Burns, who, while Irish, looks like a Swede. So that's how we got in," joked Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns about his blond-haired daughter, while welcoming the crowd.
About 150 people got an aerobic workout after the Maypole was raised at noon, as they danced in rings around it and then snaked through the bystanders. They laughed as they were urged to make the sound a Swedish pig does - "nÖff nÖff," not "oink oink" - while dancing to one of the folk songs traditionally sung at Midsommar, "Sma Grodorna."
Later, the Swedish American Children's Choir, clad in traditional folk dress, danced and sang about enjoying Midsommar.
Re-enactors from the Micel Folcland group showed what life was like for Anglo-Scandinavians who lived in the British Isles 1,000 years ago. And tours were given of the Raven, a replica of a Viking ship housed at the park.
The event has been held in Geneva since 1925, when the temperance organization bought the land.