On June 25, many Swedes gather for one of the year’s most beloved holiday celebrations: Midsummer’s Eve. It’s one of few with relatively little religious content, even though it originates from the 4th-century celebration of John the Baptist’s birth. Like many folk traditions, Midsummer is about the passing of the seasons. It falls near the summer solstice and is thematically similar to how that event has been celebrated in many cultures through the ages. People come together to share food and drink in a summery setting, around the dinner table at home, at larger gatherings in the garden, or in the form of grand communal celebrations outdoors. It’s one of the longest days of the year, luminally encouraging a late, late night of partying, and fittingly it was decided in 1953 that Midsummer’s Eve should always occur on a Friday.

But for horror fans, Swedish Midsummer only means one thing, at least since the past couple of years: the movie Midsommar (2019). Ari Aster‘s gruesome depiction of part-fictional, part actual Swedish lore in the small community of Hårga was divisive among critics and audiences at its release. The film is open to many interpretations and produces new discourse on what almost seems like a daily basis, revealing that even if not universally liked, Midsommar is one of the more talked about horror films in recent years.

In developing the script, Aster had help from set decorator Henrik Svensson in devising the Hårga cult and their customs. It consists of a rich mixture of traditions, rituals, and visuals from Swedish and other folk cultures but somehow darkly twisted. Many events in Midsommar seem out of this world, or at least so arcane that they can be presumed to have very little to do with today’s festivities surrounding Midsummer’s Eve. But in fact, there is more overlap between the fictional and the actual celebration than you would think.

Let’s break down some of the customs depicted in Midsommar and try to answer the question: Do Swedes really do this? But before we proceed, let’s get the pronunciation down once and for all. The Swedish word “midsommar” is pronounced “miss-ommar,” stressing all syllables more or less the same, and that’s that.

Attire and adornments

Although the folk garbs worn by the Hårga members are made up, it’s not uncommon to see similar clothing on Swedish Midsummer and other traditional celebrations in the country. In the old agrarian society, they were just ordinary outfits, varied with the seasons. But the national romantic movement in Europe around the turn of the 20th century picked up on this, much like with many other “peasant” customs, and members of high society started wearing folk costumes on festive occasions. While the bourgeoisie was busy cosplaying and spending a lot of time trying to create a canon of regional garments, the general population had moved on to work clothes more suited to an industrialized society. Many even considered folk costumes a symbol of an archaic and wildly unequal society that they had moved on from in the name of modernity. The community Midsummer celebration in Sweden has an air of theater, and many would consider wearing these uniforms from old times an homage more than a fashion statement, much like wearing a Santa’s hat on Christmas.

Flowers are everywhere in Midsommar and on Midsummer too. The fresh flower wreath worn on the head has become one of the immediately recognizable visuals from the movie, featured in its iconic poster. This summery accessory is actually ubiquitous during Swedish Midsummer, and you’ll see people of all ages wear them regardless of their feelings about body adornments the rest of the year. Traditionally, the wreath is made by the wearer on the same day, again connecting with the seasonal growth theme of the holiday. The full-body May Queen flower bed attire awarded to Dani towards the end is, however, an invention of the filmmakers and not a common sight in Sweden. You could think of it as an almost absurd exaggeration of existing flower-wearing traditions.

The casting of spells

Do Swedes cast love spells and hide runic totems under each other’s pillows on Midsummer? This practice is depicted in Midsommar at first as a somewhat childish make-believe game and later pointing towards something more sinister, and you would think it has little to do with modern celebrations. But Swedes will find rituals along these lines very familiar in a slightly modified form: picking the seven flowers. Midsummer is a magical night in folklore, when nature, animals, and people are more susceptible to spells and more in touch with their spiritual dimension. Thus, it’s an excellent opportunity to find out who your true love is. The way to go about it is to pick seven types of flowers, preferably jumping over seven fences in the process, then hiding them under your pillow on Midsummer’s Eve. That night your future betrothed will appear to you in a dream. In Midsommar, some Hårga women pick flowers walking backward, which is not an uncommon addition to the picking of the seven flowers tradition. Gathering the flowers in complete silence is another variation. Both these customs are about doing things out of the ordinary to break with non-magical everydayness. However, Midsommar takes a rather sweet and innocent ritual and turns it dark: instead of a self-suggestive gesture, an invasive hex pointed at Christian to muddle his mind.

Dancing around the pole

Dani has a significant emotional breakthrough in what can be considered the beginning of Midsommar‘s climax, the dance scene. The young women of Hårga are served drug-infused lemonade and invited to dance in various patterns around a decorated pole until they faint, steadily incited by droning folk music from a small ensemble and the commands of an elder. The last person standing wins the most coveted of prizes – they are crowned May Queen and revered as such for the remainder of the feast, with all sorts of peculiar ceremonies that come with the title. Dani participates in this game of endurance, at first reluctantly but with more and more glee, or something like it.

The Midsummer Pole (or Maypole, internationally speaking) is the quintessential Midsummer symbol in Sweden. At large community celebrations, it is usually erected at the center of a meadow as a group activity, after decorating it with birch leaves and flowers, leaving plenty of room around it. Because yes, like in Midsommar, dancing around the pole is an essential activity on this day. Similar to the movie, it is usually done in several circles with ever-changing modes and variations. But the modern dance around the Maypole is geared more towards the youngest, with childish songs such as “Små grodorna” (“The Little Frogs”) that include imitating frogs and such. Accompaniment by a small group of live musicians is a common sight, usually on traditional instruments such as violin and accordion. The goal of the current day Midsummer circle dance is not to determine a May Queen. It serves more as a socially acceptable opportunity to play like kids for a little while, hopefully not collapsing along the way. If drugs are involved, it’s more likely in the form of beer than psychedelics.

Death and sacrifice

More horrific than curious is the Hårga inclination towards blood sacrifice. In discussions about whether Dani or Christian is the worst person, many seem to completely miss that Pelle is, in fact, the real villain in Midsommar. Underneath a soft and sympathetic demeanor hides the person responsible for bringing new victims to the cult, ready to be sacrificed as part of the symbolic nine in the film’s final scenes. In Sweden, historical research into pre-Christian Midsummer traditions regularly revives the debate on whether there was once upon a time an element of blood sacrifice. So far, the evidence is thin. If it ever happened, it is even less likely humans were subjected. So this is one you can strike off your list of things to expect on a Midsummer’s Eve celebration in 2021.

Of course, the most memorable deaths in Midsommar are those near a high, rocky cliff known as the ättestupa. The literal meaning of the term is something like “clan precipice.” It was a place where supposedly the oldest members of society would jump off, or be pushed, to their death when they could no longer contribute to the group. So when the anthropologist Josh hears that Hårga might be into the ättestupa, he is fascinated and frightened – having heard of it only in academic research. It’s a realistic reaction that aligns with the current research consensus on the subject, which is that there is no credible confirmation of any ättestupa actually having been in use. But it’s something many Swedes had heard of long before the movie came out, often through high school history teachers that felt a need to spice up slightly boring lectures with some dubious but thrilling horror content.

When in Sweden

Midsommar has an abundance of overt and obscure references to Swedish folklore. You can take almost any ritual seen in the movie, do some research on it, and find out it has a counterpart in some existing, ancient tradition. As traditions are living things and only survive for as long as they are practiced, many have fallen into oblivion by now. But numerous customs survive to this day and still find their way to any modern celebration of Midsummer’s Eve in Sweden, some in a somewhat original form and others simplified.

If you are ever invited to Sweden to celebrate Midsummer, don’t be afraid. You are not likely to fall prey to a pagan death cult. But you will probably, hopefully, partake in some odd customs like jumping around like frogs or picking flowers backward. However, you will not be able to shed every last association to Ari Aster’s vision. Because in all likelihood, you are surrounded by people dressed in white linen or cotton, the occasional folk costume, everyone with a floral wreath on their head. The Maypole is up, and the day is long. Let the festivities begin.