By Brenda Jepson
Special to the Aroostook Republican & News
The 145th anniversary of the founding of Maine’s Swedish Colony in northern Aroostook County was celebrated over the weekend during Midsommar Festival. Over 400 people attended the event, coming from many different places including California, Montana, Ohio and Massachusetts.
Aroostook Republican photo/Michael A. Gudreau
The 145th anniversary of the founding of Maine’s Swedish Colony in northern Aroostook County was celebrated over the weekend during Midsommar Festival. Here local girls gather wild flowers like Queen Anne’s lace, daises, buttercups, blue vetch and tamarack branches to be used for the making of traditional Swedish hair wreaths.
Henry Thomas, grandson of William Widgery Thomas, the founder of Maine’s Swedish Colony, came to this year’s Midsommar weekend in New Sweden, and brought his Swedish-born wife, Ingrid. They drove up from Freeport and are very strong supporters of New Sweden Historical Society.
The music over the weekend was really wonderful – they are called The Swedish Meatballs and they perform many traditional Swedish dance songs – waltzes, polkas, schottises and hambos. The musicians are led by New Sweden’s Stephen Boody, who descended from local Swedes, and the Little Swedish Folk Dancers are led by a high school student from New Sweden, Luke Lagasse with assistance from Stockholm student, Abigail Wimmer. They are both veteran dancers of the troupe whose members range in age from 6 to 12.
The New Sweden Little Folk Dancers revived the Oksdans (Ox Dance) this year. This is a dance in which two young boys fight it out over a girl. The dance steps mimic teasing and punching, but usually result in the girl taking flight with a third boy. In this year’s skit, Anna Anderson Thibodeau of Stockholm, fled into the arms of her father, Joe Thibodeau, when she had had enough of the sparring.
A special recognition given to Lynn Johnson, a native of New Sweden, who went to live in California, but who has devoted herself through trips to Sweden and to Salt Lake City to unearth the genealogy of hundreds of Maine Swedish Colony families. She travels back from California to New Sweden each year to help local folks discover their Swedish roots. She was honored with a certificate presented by her aunt, Arlene Johnson Plourde.
