Being the first summer living in a house with a little garden in Japan, being father of a son having just turned one, I wanted to make a little Swedish imprint in our daily Japanese life and celebrate Midsummer together. Midsummer is a big festivity in Sweden, and apart from eating an drinking, the Midsummer pole stands in the center of the celebrations. The pole is often made to look like a cross with two hanging rings, heavily decorated with leaves and flowers, and I had big plans to make a little Midsummer pole and dance around it with my family, singing the traditional songs. But more fool me – of course our son got a bad cold from daycare and before we knew it the three of us were all feeling well under the weather.
After having cried his way through the doctors appointment, Midsummer evening came and our son wanted to go out and enjoy a little fresh air before bed. I thought that I needed to give me plan a last minute try anyway, so I took him to the little wildish bamboo grove on the other side of the street. There he stood looking at the pebbles while I picked up a few cut down bamboo shoots, and coming back to our house we made a little sad looking Midsummer pole with no leaves, no flowers but lots of love.
Impossible to know, but I doubt there are many bamboo Midsummer poles in the world, so although the Swedish beauty was shining with its absence I cannot help but thinking that we happened upon a quite cute Swedish-Japanese blend, a kind of Midsummer fusion. Even though I still feel a bit disappointed about the whole thing, our son was happy and we managed a little dance as well – Små grodorna (Little frogs) – before he got to play with the bamboo pole and it ended up in the dirt next to the the Japanese lantern that will soon find its place in our garden.
Actually, come to think of it, I am not disappointed at all – what a happy image of our multicultural life together.
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