June 18th, is International Picnic Day, a day we celebrate one of the greatest ways to enjoy the summer season—an outdoor picnic with friends, family, games and activities, and delicious food. June 22nd is Midsommar in Scandinavia and an excellent reason to have a picnic. (You can find out more about Midsommar in our blog… More Picnics Scandinavian Style
This month’s folktales come from the book By the Fire – Sami Folktales and Legends collected and illustrated by Emilie Demant Hatt, translated, and with an Afterword, by Barbara Sjoholm. In the book Demant Hatt explains: This small book is called “by the fire” because everything here was told around the campfire. Fire is, after the… More Scandinavian Folklore and Folktales #4: Sami Folktales
Cleanliness is next to godliness, or so the saying goes; but for folks in the Nordic countries, it may be the other way around. They “vask” themselves and “vask” their homes with religious zeal. The Finns have gone so far as to create a temple to bathing. They have their own popular saying: “Two places… More Spring Cleaning in Scandinavia: Squeaky Clean and Squeaky Green