Pole Dancing in Sweden

I'm in Stockholm, Sweden right now. Today is the first day of Sweden's mid-summer celebration. It lasts three days, and is a pretty big deal around here. Locals told me tales of "raising the Maypole" and of people dressed in traditional Swedish clothing dancing traditional dances around the Maypole. I took great pains to be sure sure I would see a Maypole raising. I chose an extremely popular place. So popular that I was separated from the Maypole by about 4 zillion people.

I was set on sticking around, but was prepared to see nothing more than the backs of a bunch of Swedish people wearing Birch wreaths on their heads (apparently that's part of the deal). Eventually the announcer started getting the crowd to say "Ohhhhhhhh Heeeeeeeey!" At first I had no idea why, but eventually I figured out that the Maypole raisers would raise the pole a little further each time the crowd let out an "Ohhhhhh Heeeeeey!" As the Maypole raisers worked to push the pole from horizontal to vertical, I could see the top of it slowly rising, and people were *excited*. The excitement was contagious, and in spite of the fact that I could not understand a word the announcer was saying, and couldn't actually see the Maypole raisers, I found myself tensing my muscles to help them and thouroughly enjoying myself.

Once the Maypole was up, people cheered, and chaos broke loose. People started lifting the ropes holding us back and basically rushed the pole. At first I thought "Oh no, the crowd lost it--we'll all be trampled"; in retrospect I'm pretty sure rushing the pole was part of the plan. The crowd somehow managed to form somewhat concentric circles around the Maypole, and strangers held hands, and began dancing and singing. Most of the people knew the words and dances, and the tourists kind of just clumsily followed the dance moves and smiled likes fools. It really was a lot of fun.