Swedish Festival
The Swedish Fectival in Mt. Jewett, Pennsylvania, is an annual three-day event that celebrates the Swedish culture of the majority of the residents of Mt. Jewett. For a town with a population of maybe 2,000, it is a very big event. Since they don't have a high school of their own anymore (the kids come to my hometown, Kane, 12 miles away), this is their own special homecoming.
The highlight for Myles was, of course, the working model of the Viking Ship. He liked this better than the parade, full of fire trucks and Zem Zems (2 units!). It was presented by an organization called Leif Ericsson Viking Ship, Inc. They are based out of the Philadelphia area and provide educational opportunites to schools in that area as well as travel to festivals.
The ship and Viking camp were staffed by volunteer historians. One thing that is importnat to note is that the Viking costumes we have come to know, like the horned helmet and the pelts, is completely an invention of the costumers for Wagnerian Operas. Real Vikings did not wear horns, a liability in every day life, let alone in battle. Fur pelts have been found as part of their sleeping bags, but they would have worn oiled leather instead. Fur, too, would have been a huge liability once wet. Some of those dressed as Vikings demonstrated Viking life, like one woman who hand-spun wool (Easy, she said, if you used the exact kind of wool they would have used). Others were on hand to describe how the ship worked compaerd to an actual Viking ship.
One of the Viking-like things on hand at their camp was a game called Tables. Not unlike chess, it involved pieces moving on gridwork to capture or crown the king.
The white pawns' job is to protect the King as he ventures out to one of the corners (white team wins). The black pawns are working toward preventing the King from doing this, capturing the king, and taking any white pawns that stand in their way.
With the Viking Ship as a centerpiece, the festival theme was all Viking. The traditional bed race was re-cast as a Viking Ship race.
They take their bed races very seriously in Mt. Jewett.
I always have loved to go to the Swedish Festival. In high school we marched in the parade. When I was in college I worked in a bar that was in the cellar of one of the buildings on Main Street. At one time it was actually called The Hole (very classy place). Swedish Festival, while exhausting for bartenders, was better than your birthday and Christmas put together for us tip-wise. And while I like to celebrate the Swedishness of Jewett, I am not Swedish. My affection for the culture comes from being surrounded by it with all the Swedes in Jewett and Kane. When Crucnchy Cons first came out, I read it thinking, this really isn't that novel. Where I come from this is just called Swedish.
I really enjoy these ethnic festivals and picnics, too, because there is something so frozen-in-time about these cultures in the U.S. The language, the food, even the religious traditions that we hold so dear here probably seem even more quaint to those who are from our countries of origin. There are probably more active polka bands in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio than in all of Eastern Europe. Does anyone in Sweden still eat lutefisk or korv? When I once asked a (born and raised in Poland) Polish co-worker about Halushki, she hadn't heard of it, but her step-mother remembered her grandmother making it. Halushki is still common in Pittsburgh. The cafeteria at my sister's office building even serves it on occassion.
The highlight for Myles was, of course, the working model of the Viking Ship. He liked this better than the parade, full of fire trucks and Zem Zems (2 units!). It was presented by an organization called Leif Ericsson Viking Ship, Inc. They are based out of the Philadelphia area and provide educational opportunites to schools in that area as well as travel to festivals.
The ship and Viking camp were staffed by volunteer historians. One thing that is importnat to note is that the Viking costumes we have come to know, like the horned helmet and the pelts, is completely an invention of the costumers for Wagnerian Operas. Real Vikings did not wear horns, a liability in every day life, let alone in battle. Fur pelts have been found as part of their sleeping bags, but they would have worn oiled leather instead. Fur, too, would have been a huge liability once wet. Some of those dressed as Vikings demonstrated Viking life, like one woman who hand-spun wool (Easy, she said, if you used the exact kind of wool they would have used). Others were on hand to describe how the ship worked compaerd to an actual Viking ship.
One of the Viking-like things on hand at their camp was a game called Tables. Not unlike chess, it involved pieces moving on gridwork to capture or crown the king.
The white pawns' job is to protect the King as he ventures out to one of the corners (white team wins). The black pawns are working toward preventing the King from doing this, capturing the king, and taking any white pawns that stand in their way.
With the Viking Ship as a centerpiece, the festival theme was all Viking. The traditional bed race was re-cast as a Viking Ship race.
They take their bed races very seriously in Mt. Jewett.
I always have loved to go to the Swedish Festival. In high school we marched in the parade. When I was in college I worked in a bar that was in the cellar of one of the buildings on Main Street. At one time it was actually called The Hole (very classy place). Swedish Festival, while exhausting for bartenders, was better than your birthday and Christmas put together for us tip-wise. And while I like to celebrate the Swedishness of Jewett, I am not Swedish. My affection for the culture comes from being surrounded by it with all the Swedes in Jewett and Kane. When Crucnchy Cons first came out, I read it thinking, this really isn't that novel. Where I come from this is just called Swedish.
I really enjoy these ethnic festivals and picnics, too, because there is something so frozen-in-time about these cultures in the U.S. The language, the food, even the religious traditions that we hold so dear here probably seem even more quaint to those who are from our countries of origin. There are probably more active polka bands in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio than in all of Eastern Europe. Does anyone in Sweden still eat lutefisk or korv? When I once asked a (born and raised in Poland) Polish co-worker about Halushki, she hadn't heard of it, but her step-mother remembered her grandmother making it. Halushki is still common in Pittsburgh. The cafeteria at my sister's office building even serves it on occassion.
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