The Midsommar Crown: Flowers, Folklore, and the Nordic Art of Celebrating Summer

Every culture has its rituals for marking the turn of a season. In Scandinavia, none is more beloved than Midsommar, the celebration of the summer solstice that has been observed across the Nordic countries for centuries. And at the center of that celebration is the flower crown.

Worn by men and women alike, flower crowns are a simple object. Stems bent and bound, petals facing every which way, greenery tucked between blooms. But behind it sits a tradition that is older and more layered than it first appears.

Why Flowers at Midsommar

Midsommar falls at the height of the Nordic summer, the moment when the landscape is most alive after months of darkness and cold. In the old Nordic agricultural calendar this was not just a celebration but a threshold, a moment when the boundary between the ordinary world and something older and wilder felt thin. Plants gathered at midsummer were believed to hold special properties. Flowers picked in the morning dew were thought to carry healing power. Wreaths hung above doorways were said to protect the household through the coming year. The flower crown was part of this. Wearing blooms at midsummer connected the wearer to the season at its peak, a way of carrying summer's abundance close.

The Seven Flowers

The most enduring piece of midsommar flower lore is the tradition of the seven wildflowers. On midsommar eve, a young woman would go out in silence and gather seven different species of wildflowers. She would collect them from seven different fields, crossing over seven fences or boundaries along the way. That night she would place them under her pillow, and in her dreams she would see the face of her future husband.

The number seven appears throughout Nordic folklore as a number of particular significance. The flowers had to be wild, gathered from the landscape rather than cultivated, which connected the ritual to the land itself rather than to the domestic garden.

Different regions had their own variations. In some parts of Sweden the flowers were tucked into the crown itself rather than placed under the pillow. In others the tradition was observed on the morning of midsommar rather than the eve. But the core of it, seven flowers, silence, and a dream, remained consistent across generations.

The Flowers Themselves

The classic midsommar crown is made from whatever is blooming in the landscape at that moment. In Sweden that means cornflowers, oxeye daisies, red clover, yarrow, chamomile, and buttercups, the wildflowers of meadows and field edges that reach their peak in late June. 

How to Make a Midsommar Crown

You do not need a florist's training or a garden full of blooms. The traditional midsommar crown is made from whatever is growing near you.

1. Cut stems long, at least twelve inches if you can. Flexible stems work best: clover, chamomile, yarrow, Queen Anne's lace, or any wildflower with a pliable stalk. Gather more than you think you need.
   
2. Take two or three stems and twist them together at the base to form your starting point. Continue adding stems one at a time, wrapping each new addition around the previous ones and working in the same direction. Keep the tension even but not tight.
3. As the crown grows, bend it gently into a circle and secure the ends together by tucking and wrapping the final stems back through the base.
   
4. If you want a crown that holds its shape or lasts through an evening, start instead with a length of floral wire. Measure it around your head and twist the ends together to form a circle.
5. Wrap the wire loosely with floral tape to give the stems something to grip, then attach your flowers by laying each stem against the wire at an angle and wrapping the base tightly with floral tape as you go. 
6. Work in one direction, overlapping each addition to cover the tape from the previous stem. Tuck the final stems under the nearest flowers to finish cleanly. A wire base gives you more control over placement and works well for shorter-stemmed flowers or when you are making crowns with children.
   

Flowers and the Desert

At Ökenhem we have always been drawn to the botanical tradition in Scandinavian design, the long history of flowers and plants rendered as flat graphic forms, pressed into prints and textiles and ceramics. Our in-house collection of botanical prints and notecards carries that same sensibility, applied to the flowers of our own desert landscape. Different blooms, same instinct: to look closely at what grows around you and find it worth celebrating. 

If you are joining us for Midsommar at the store this June, we hope you will make a crown with us. We have a local flower farm bringing in fresh cut blooms and greens and we'll have all the supplies you need to create your own to wear for the day.

Read more about our past celebrations here.