Changing the Definition of Travel

Thoughts on World Travel

Do you worry, as I do, about the poor souls who nurse insufferable passions that don't match reality?  You've seen them, for example, on American Idol.  They feel such a need to sing, despite the fact that most folks would pay good money to avoid having to hear them sing. You cannot keep these types from singing; they'll go raving mad.  Talent's got nothing to do with it; it's passion.

For other people, that passion is dancing, or boxing, or doing quadratic equations.  Others have to outsmart bad guys; others must tend green things, or paint, or ride horses. Talent, capability, budget constraints or other reality checks don't seem to figure in to this need.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  What's your insufferable passion?

Well.  I have a few.  But one of mine is travel.

I've been very lucky.  Because my father was a pilot and we could fly for free, I've been practically everywhere!  I've watched the sheep grazing on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.  I've gazed into the Mona Lisa's eyes in Paris.  I've hiked up and stood inside the Statue of Liberty.  I've seen the pandas at the Tokyo zoo and I've ridden on a giant tortoise on the Seychelles Islands.  I've touched the Berlin Wall. I've fed birds at the Eiffel Tower.  I've pulled a rolling suitcase across cobblestone streets in Stockholm, Edinburgh, and Berlin. I've swum with manatees in Florida.  I've been scuba diving with barracudas.  I once stayed in an African hotel where ostriches and zebras paced outside the window.

I've eaten snails at Ile aux Moines, France; an island so small that cars are outlawed and everyone has to bike or walk. I have witnessed the New Year's Eve beach festivities in Rio De Janeiro, (roses buried in the sand as an offering for a goddess of the sea.) I've eaten a barbeque with Goucho cowboys on a Buenos Aires ranch.  I've been to Denmark's Legoland, Florida's Gatorland, and Utah's Dinosaur Museum. I've seen the movie stars, the hobos and the gangsters of California. I've seen ghettos in St. Louis, Chicago, and New York.  I could go on and on and on, but I'll stop here.

Today I live in a little hick town in Utah, and I have neither money, free flight privileges, or a job that requires me to fly anywhere. The furthest I've gone in the past five years has been the adjoining state, Colorado.  But I do travel --yes, indeed.  There are truly innumerable ways to make it happen.

--How do you pull it off, you ask? 

We can change our attitudes about what defines travel. We can change our definitions of what defines vacation. Traveling and tourism are simply a slice of life. We are all visitors to this planet.  Travel is what we all do, every time we walk to the mailbox, every time we notice a leaf, every time we look into the eyes of another human being.  It's not really about where you go, but it is about how you see.  How do you see the place where you stand today?  It's opening your eyes. It's seizing the day. It's a state of mind.

My kids don't know that they're not spoiled, not flying to foreign lands, because we are always traveling; it's our state of mind.

We treat local historical sites with as much reverence as we would a trip to the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Cliffs of Dover, or Waterloo.  We pick up our own local travel brochures, and peruse them as if we were from another country, looking in.  We observe people; we talk about what we see, what we eat, what we would think of this place if we weren't living a mile or a hundred miles from here.

In the past year or two we've road-tripped to the rodeo at the "Strawberry Days" of Pleasant Grove, Utah; to the Alpenhorn blowing at "Swiss Days" of Midway, Utah; to the Swedish meatball eating at "Scandinavian Days" of Ephraim, Utah; to the wooden gun whittling of the "Cowboy Poetry Days" of Heber, Utah; and we've tasted the fresh pressed cider at "Apple Fest" of Cedaredge, Colorado.  We've even found a little cemetery only thirty miles away with an incredibly fascinating history that I'll have to blog about another day...

Life is fascinating.  Everything around us.  It really is.

Generations Away From the Old Countries and the Lutfisk

This cracked me up:  my  friend, also a 2nd generation real Swede,  who went to the Scandinavian festival in Ephraim this year,  said:  "My boys kept asking 'Where's all the Swedish stuff?' as we walked around the place. My husband kept saying, 'We must be in the wrong area... there must be a Swedish area...' NOPE!"

---and she laughed at the Viking dinner recipe blunders, like cucumbers pickled with parsley instead of dill, and cranberry sauce as a side instead of lingonberries-- but she said she really enjoyed her  "Swedish" carne asade tacos.

Scandinavian food, music, and merchandise represented maybe 1 or 2% of the whole carnival offerings.  I wondered why they still bothered to call the festival Scandinavian.  There were more Himalayan and Peruvian booths than there are Norwegian or Danish ones.  There was a lot more American merchandise, storytelling, and music than any Swedish, Finnish, or Icelandic. 

Yet, I'm not utterly disappointed in Ephraim's Scandinavian Days' authenticity.  We did find some crocheted and plastic viking helmets, some dalahastar, some meatballs, and some reindeer jewelry. And it's always good to have family time, anywhere, anyplace.

I do understand that time changes things, including the connectedness a group of people feel, or don't feel, for their cultural heritage.  Sanpete County had Scandinavian ancestors, but the locals are no longer Scandinavian.  They are Americans.  It's the same in Midway, with Swiss Days.  They have a hard time even being motivated to want to hold on to old-world traditions.  No one visits the old world anymore.  No one speaks the language.

But in our family, we were able to.  We went to Sweden every summer, and spent months, up until  college age.  We always spoke Swedish, even when we lived in Germany or America.  And so do my kids.  I love, love, love my Swedish heritage!

So, all night, I've been dreaming up even more things to add to the list of 50+ ways to improve Scandinavian Days in Ephraim. 

·         Cute red-and-white outhouses for port-o-potties.

·          Puppet shows and puppet or marionette making, with Scandinavian characters, of course.

·          Fil-mjolk taster's table.

·          Artists-and-writers-event, celebrating Carl Larsson, Anders Zorn, Selma Lagerlof, Ilon Wikland, Astrid Lindgren, Ingmar Bergman, and live Scandinavian-American artists, too.

·          Ceramic and glass blowing demonstrations. 

·         Wild strawberries.

·          Wild mushrooms.

·          Look-alike contests that not only include ABBA, but also Scandinavian royalty, Astrid Lindgren characters, or Moomintrolls.  He-man viking games --that also include the women.

My mom said that I also forgot to mention holiday traditions:

·         Lucia.

·          Dressing up Kids as Nice Easter Witches.

·          Advent candles.

·          Fetisdagsbullar. 

·         Midsummer wreaths in the hair

Fetisdagsbulle

Advent Ljus

Pask Karringar

She emailed me: "Jag tror problemet var att folk helt enkelt inte vet mycket om Sverige och vet inte hur det ska vara. Nasta ar kan jag skicka min svenska klanning om du vill lana den. Man kan ju latt gora midsommarkransar att satta i haret av silkeblommor. Nu ska jag gora en silltallrik med potatis och hart brod till lunch. Jag var till IKEA igar pa vagen hem "

--which translates:  "I think the problem is that people simply don't know much about Sweden [Scandinavia] and don't know how it should be.  Next year I can send you my Swedish traditional dress to borrow.  You can also easily make midsummer wreaths to put on your hair, of flowers.  Now I am making a pickled herring plate with potatoes and hard bread for lunch.  I was at Ikea yesterday on the way home..."

Another friend told me that I should start my own Scandinavian days.  "You SHOULD start your own! The neat thing is you know your heritage & it has been strongly passed down.  A lot of people don't get that. (Most of us are "mutts" so to speak!) I bet in the beginning those festivals were more authentic, yet each generation loses a bit and gets more "Americanized" if it isn't continued to be passed down. "

Generations from now, my grandchildren probably will not understand or be charmed by "Petter och Hans Fyra Getter," "Emil," or "Ronja Rovardotter," nor get the point of dancing around the midsummer pole/ Christmas tree while holding hands, or like the smell of cardamom bread, the melody of the troll lullabye, the sturdiness of a dalahast in the windowsill, the tastes of lingonberry jam, or pickled herring, or liverwurst (for breakfast with pickles, on hard bread, with hot chocolate.) 

But I really hope they will.

Anyway, I have decided with my sister that we'll have our own little Midsummer Fest again this year, here in the back yard, with dancing, singing, Swedish games and lots of good Swedish food.  I will post pictures when we do. 

Anybody want to come?  It will be potluck, and I promise not to complain if you bring Italian Ices or Carne Asada instead of Lutfisk. 

(I have never gotten past the smell to eat any Lutfisk, so my grandchildren probably never will learn to love it, either. ) That's how these things go.

Scandinavian Festival in Ephraim: 50 Ways to Intensify the Scandinavian Vibe








Here's A.J. and a random viking that we met at Scandinavian Heritage Festival.  Even though we had a blast, we have to admit that the festival was 95% non-authentic-Scandinavian.  Sad.  So... here's an unsolicited list of 50+ ways that next year's event could be SO MUCH better.



50+ Ideas For Making Ephraim's Scandinavian Days More Scandinavian




Invite Real Laplanders



Paint some houses red and white



Sell some manly Scandinavian stuff

Have an Abba tribute band and a family dance.

Abba- Bjorn Again!

Family dance-- all ages welcome!



The whole community dances together around the midsommar-stang




     

1.   Have a committee of REAL scandinavians who speak the language(s) and are enthusiastic about the cultures. 



        

Have rich cultural images everywhere.







Show Scandinavian Films outdoors or indoors, all night long.









2.       Have a food sampling  --like a marzipan, leverpastej, bulla
lutfisk or chocolate sampling, possibly aboard a viking ship
 or viking home replica.



      




--Or... make it a pancake-eating

  


contest. 

   Serve only Scandinavian treats;

 

for example, Ikea might supply

  


pickled herring, pink caviar in a toothpaste tube, Swedish hard bread, juices of elderberry, lingonberry, or

cloudberry---

Fladersaft - Elderberry juice

Lingonberries



Saft





Hjortron (cloudberries)



Danish Cheese

   


 

     

                                            --and sweets!




     Next, host a crayfish fest... with dill, crayfish & lanterns!

Before you can hang up the crayfish party lights, you need to catch the crayfish.

 

Crayfishing is easy, fun and cheap.

If you just use a piece of string and a piece of raw chicken, you can get the crayfish to clamp on to your lure by the edge of a cold, rocky lake.

      Then, have a troll hunting game.







      



(You can do this in the forest, in a corn maze, a field, or indoors)


 


Have lots of real trolls dressed up, haunting people, or waiting to be found.





  

After the troll hunting, try some viking games:


Viking He-Man contests



Viking He-Man Contest Ideas





      Have some viking He-man contests:  throw logs,




  




capture people and throw them over your shoulder and run across a field; eat a chicken barehanded without silverware. 

Viking he-man eating contest

He-man viking contest:  down a tube of caviar in one gulp

OR...

Real royalty invited to participate by Skype or in person

 Invite real princesses, princes, relatives, RM's, or other royalty to come and have a fundraiser for their favorite charities, or to participate by Skype or video recording.

Real Scandinavians Performing

Real Scandinavian Emcees

  



  Have real Scandinavians emcee events, so we can hear their accents and stories.

Have clog-wearing historians tell about the Scandinavian settlers of Sanpete county.



Scandinavian genealogy committee

                            Have a Scandinavian genealogy booth.

Have a live musician or two wandering, playing Scandinavian folk music.

 

Because who can resist Mumin?

And then there are the Moomintrolls from Finland

     

Have a Mumintroll Booth

 

Have Scandinavian flags waving everywhere.

Have the storytelling contest be troll, viking, or Astrid-Lindgren themed.
  Play ONLY Scandinavian music!  Rock, folk, classical, kids', jazz-- but make it only Scandinavian.

  Have a dalahast painting booth for kids.  Supply wooden horses

 
and paint; let the kids go crazy on it.

18.   Have a dalahast painting booth for adults.

Have prizes for the dalahast that shows great beauty, creativity, historically accurate design, or is







funny.

      

People could also paint wooden flags, or other Scandinavian


 traditional items.






   Have a pepparkaks-breaking booth.  Break it into three and you make 3 wishes. 

 

  Have a large screen with Skype directly connecting Ephraim to cities     in Scandinavia so people can make new friends. 

Scandinavian images should be everywhere!

Encourage foreign exchange student sign ups

Read Scandinavian Folklore

  Encourage foreign exchange-student sign ups.  

 


  Invite Scandinavian airlines, embassies, businesses and tourist companies to Ephraim.

 

   Have Scandinavian folk dancing lessons and shows.

  Accept Euros and old Kronor and ore, as well as dollars
and cents.

 Have postcards and stamps for sale, so people can send off a letter to a new Scandinavian pen pal




ot.

 Have a service project to benefit a Scandinavian charity

  Have a polkagris-making booth, and let people pull their own peppermint candy


        

Have a game show:  Lutefisk Survivor or Scandinavian Idol

   Have a trivia contest:  who's the current soccer hero in Denmark?    What's a famous sandwich from Sweden?

Liverwurst and pickle on Swedish bread - traditional meal

   Offer Scandinavian chocolates,


  



hard breads,   herrings,  


 

caviars,         liverwursts,






Algkorv - Moose sausage

 smoked reindeer and moose meat, 

Reindeer meat

                     cheeses,  





 drinks,
      T-shirts,

    


flags,           

postcards, etc.

-- I honestly didn't even see a bag of Swedish fish for sale in Ephraim this year!

  And by royal decree, allow a maximum of 5% of the art and food booths to sell non-Scandinavian themed items, not the other way
around.

 Reward visitors and sellers who are dressed up



in traditional folk costumes    

of Scandinavia, or who dress up as vikings, trolls, Scandinavian flags, or who at least look like they tried



 

to dress in the spirit of Scandinavian Days.

 Give them prizes,   or free passes to the Viking Feast or to the Smorgasbord.

 Invite LDS returned missionaries to man a food or decorative booth from Iceland, Norway, Finland....  


Barn Leker!

   Have play-in-scenes, with kid-sized red-and-white painted cottages, Scandinavian story characters for children to play with.

  And a petting zoo next door to the kids' red cottages.  Trolls can hand out feed.  A few goats can be wearing viking helmets.

   Have a karaoke contest, with all Finnish lyrics.  Hilarious for anyone.

   Have some competitive Scandinavian contests:  tug of war,



discus throwing, etc., with teams of Swedes vs. Norwegians, for example. 


Make them wear the T-shirt of the team they want to represent.


And please remember...

 
  We must have Bulla with pearl-sugar for sale on every corner.  Sell waffles with fruit and cream on every corner.

   Have a midsommar-stang!!!! (I should have put this very first. This is a midsummer pole, decorated with wildflowers). 

Teach people how to hold hands and dance around it, while the fiddle and/or accordion player plays the traditional tunes.

Have a sitting sing-along for those who can't stand and dance around the midsummer pole.  This is a traditional summer activity in Sweden.  Pass our phonetically-written songbooks in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish--- and let people take turns with the microphone.  Great fun!

  Have an Abba lookalike contest. Of course!  

   Read aloud or watch Astrid Lindgren and Moomintroll books and movies (Pippi Longstocking, Ronja Rovardotter, Karlsson pa Taket, etc.)

  Have a showing of Kristina fran Duvemala, the great Swedish Immigrant musical by Ulvaeus and Andersson.



Baby H. in his viking helmet

 Have a cute baby contest, with the babies/toddlers dressed up in Scandinavian themed costumes

   Have an arm-wrestling contest,


 

with the host dressed up like Pippi Longstocking, the world's strongest girl.

  Have an old pioneer cottage painted with a "Villa Villekulla" sign.  Have Pippi out on the porch, with her horse, Lilla Gubben, and her monkey, Herr Nilsson.


. 
Give out gingerbread cookies



(pepparkakor)  or bulla to visitors, at Villa Villekulla.  

Everyone should be in some kind of Scandinavian costume

 Outlaw fried twinkies, fried oreos, fried coke, Texas twisters,  Peruvian hats, Himalayan dresses -- or at least

 make them a small, small part of the festival.

 Have  a Scandinavian-languages game show 

-  i.e., Scandinavian Idol, Troll Charades, Viking Win, Lose, or
 Draw...

Smorgastarta (Sandwich Cake)

 
  Name everything with Scandinavian names.  Even the pioneer exhibits can be labeled "Danish Pioneer Weaving," "Norwegian Pilgrim Happy Cooking Hour", "Finnish Pioneers' Guns" or "Swedish Pioneer Smorgastarta Stomp".


       


Have a playwriting competition with the winning play being performed by an acting troupe.  Possible play themes:  Utah Scandinavian Pioneers, Vikings, Trolls, Mumintrolls, Astrid Lindgren stories, Scandinavian historic heroes, etc.



 

  Have tons of stuff for kids:  a lingonberry necklace stringing booth,  a flags-and-vikings-face-painting booth...

  ... barkboat making, lilypad art, wood troll whittling,  Scandinavian flag decorating, and painting    


        for kids.

Offer Scandinavian books, clothes, toys and art.







The possibilities are as endless as a Scandinavian summer sky.





Does anybody else have some great ideas to bring a Scandinavian event to life??