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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 1644158" data-attributes="member: 907">The Swedish National day is June 6th, though it doesn't have any big historical significance - it was the day Gustav Vasa was elected king back in the early 16th century (I think it was 1523, but I'm not 100% sure), and one of the constitutions we've had was signed on that day, but these aren't as big in the Swedish consciousness as, say, July 4th is for Americans or May 17th is for Norwegians. Also, it's not a national holiday, though they're going to change that in a few years (at the cost of another holiday, of course). The Swedish national day is kinda lame, the main celebration is that the Royals come out and wave to people at Skansen, and people wave flags back at them.The unofficial national day of Sweden is Midsummer's Eve, when families dance around may poles (a cross covered in grass and flowers, and with two rings hanging from the horizontal part - it's really an old fertility symbol <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ), and many celebrate in the time honored fashion of getting drunk and making fools out of ourselves. Typical dishes served on Midsummer are: herring and potatoes, with strawberries for dessert.</blockquote>