6/26
Yesterday was midsummer eve or juhannus as we call it here in Finland. Common things we do to celebrate are stuff like eating new potatoes, lighting a big bonfire, beating each other with birch branches in a hot room, getting shitfaced, betting on how many people will drown while being shitfaced (you are not allowed to influence the outcome by drowning someone or yourself) and doing various midsummer spells.
In Finnish folk beliefs, midsummer was also a celebration of fertility and many midsummer spells are done to better your naimaonni, meaning your luck with getting married soon, or to find out more about your future spouse. For some reason, people believed that doing said spells naked would better your chances of succeeding…
Fortunately not all spells need to be done while naked. The most well known spell requires collecting seven different flowers from seven different fields and putting them under your pillow when you go to sleep. Then in your dreams you will (allegedly…) see your future spouse. There is an easier version of this spell where you collect a few birch branches, put them under your pillow and your future spouse will (allegedly…) come to your dreams to tie them together. For the past three years I have tried this method and not once has anyone come to tie my gaddamn birch branches!! Mom says it’s because today’s youth is so incompetent that they can’t even tie a knot lol. A third method to see your spouse in your dreams is to sleep with your other sock turned inside out.
This summer I realised that hey, I like literally live in the middle of fields. Why shouldn’t I try the flower method? I could just bike around the village for a while and find the flowers easily.
Then I got sick… So birch branch method it is again!
Off I went to the bushes where I got bitten by a million mosquitos while trying to cut branches with the dullest hedge spears possible. Here’s my shitty birch branch bouquet but if my future spouse doesn’t like it then they weren’t worth my time and effort anyway (￣┰￣*). Sorry about the shaky picture. I was trying to not get bitten by another million mosquitos.
I took a few pictures to show how bright an yötön yö (try figuring out how to pronounce that lmao) really is. It’s like walking in a dreamy haze because the sky is clear but there are no strong shadows… I took these close to 1AM.
Also, I somehow only now noticed that our neighbour has a Finnish White Rose bush. Juhannusruusu, meaning midsummer rose (Rosa spinosissima ‘Plena’), as the name suggests, blooms during midsummer!
I put the birch branch bouquet in a plastic bag and under my pillow. I couldn’t remember which one of the socks had to be turned inside out so just to be sure I turned both of them :DD
In the morning my mom said that it might have been too much because last night in my dreams I saw like half of the people I know… My friend and I were sharing a hotel room for some reason and another friend came to visit us. Then I was at a shopping center with my mom and there were a lot of people (and a really annoying sales woman...). I was at some weird meeting with a bunch of unknown people and most of them were young kids. Then I was at my old daycare getting lunch but everyone there was an adult?? AND NO BIRCH BRANCHES WERE SEEN!!!1! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
There was one unknown boy about my age with an awful haircut who had more focus than the other people I didn’t know. Though I hope he wasn’t my future spouse because I refuse to marry someone whose bangs are 10x longer than the rest of their hair…
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