Those in charge plan the day in the spirit of our Scandinavian (mostly Swedish) ancestors who founded the town and the church back in the late 1890's. It gives everyone a chance to get out all their Swedish decorations and dress up the place in blue and yellow.
We began the morning with a worship service officiated by our Paster Nancy and former Pastor James Kasperson. Their theme centered around the thought: If you want peace, then work for justice, and at the end of the service we received an "action card" with a list of things to show justice for Mother Earth on one side and thoughts on how we can work for justice for humans on the other side. It was a very nice service with LOTS of people attending...even on a Saturday!
Following the service was the Smorgasbord--or Smörgåsbord. I'm not sure if all of these foods would be recognized as Swedish by people in Sweden today, but they are all a part of our childhood as children of Swedish parents.
The menu included Swedish meatballs (of course), scalloped potatoes, homemade baked beans, pickled herring, cucumbers & onions in vinegar, pickled beets, ham rolls, cheese and vasabrod, my cousin Rollin's homemade Swedish limpa rye, and more pickles...and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Do you get the idea that pickling was really important to their food storage needs back then??
It was delicious! They also held a raffle with a few handmade items that people could buy tickets for and put the tickets in the container next to what they would like to win.
The items included a bluebird house with a succulent garden on top, a cool piece of garden art that was made with the impression of a rhubarb leaf...a BIG one!, Also a replica immigrant chest, also made by my cousin Rollin, and rosemaled by our neighbor down the road. and Leann donated the blue and yellow quilt.
And later today we learned that Leann's name was drawn for the chest and our friends just delivered it!
A really touching part of the event for me came at the end when two sisters and their brother sang a couple hymns. They are all longtime members of the church and would often sing together in the past. One of the songs they sang was "Children of the Heavenly Father." That song has meaning for me because my Dad would often sing that song in Swedish. I looked online and found the words and a link to a choir of young people singing the first two verses in Swedish and the rest in English. Good memories and a fun day!
And now we have friends here for a Summer Solstice bonfire!
1 comment:
The bonfire was lots of fun. Even if we did stay up too late. In fact the whole day was fun - Saturday Market, Kasperson's sermon and stories, delicious food and a roaring mosquito clearing fire, well....mostly anyway. Thanks for including us.
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