In a country where winter has long been associated with darkness, cold and limited daylight, it is easy to understand the importance of Midsummer. When the light finally returns, people want to celebrate it properly.

In the morning, flowers and birch branches are gathered. The maypole is decorated with green leaves and floral wreaths. Children and adults dance around it to familiar songs. Families and friends gather around long tables, often outdoors, even though a Swedish summer may offer rain, wind and temperatures barely above ten degrees.

But the weather rarely stops the celebration. Swedes have learned that Midsummer must be celebrated whether the sun is shining or the rain is falling sideways.

The food has become as essential to the holiday as the maypole itself. Pickled herring, boiled new potatoes with dill, sour cream, chives, salmon, crispbread and strawberries with cream form a kind of national summer menu.

Midsummer is also a time when many people leave the cities. They travel to summer cottages, islands, the countryside or relatives’ homes. For a few days, the whole of Sweden seems to move away from offices, shopping centres and traffic, returning instead to something simpler.

To the grass. To the water. To family and friends.

Enyovden – Bulgaria’s Midsummer

In Bulgaria, Enyovden is always celebrated on 24 June. The holiday falls close to the summer solstice and is often described as Bulgaria’s equivalent of Midsummer.

Enyovden is one of the most mysterious days in the Bulgarian folk calendar. It is dedicated to the sun, water, herbs and human health. At the same time, the date coincides with the Orthodox Christian celebration of the birth of John the Baptist.

Like many other European holidays, Enyovden is therefore a combination of older nature-based beliefs and later Christian traditions. The ancient customs did not disappear when Christianity arrived. Instead, they were woven together with the Church’s stories and saints’ days.

According to Bulgarian folklore, nature receives special powers during the night before Enyovden and in the first hours of the morning. Herbs are believed to be at their most healing. Water becomes purifying, and the dew is said to carry the power to bring health.

Traditionally, people therefore began the day long before sunrise.

Women and young girls went out to collect herbs and flowers before the sun had risen. The herbs were dried and kept for use as medicine throughout the year. Large wreaths could also be made, through which people later walked as a symbolic act of protection and healing.

Radio Bulgaria describes Enyovden as a celebration of herbs, water, the sun and rituals for health. It is considered one of Bulgaria’s most important traditional summer holidays.

The 77 and a Half Herbs

One of the most fascinating Enyovden traditions is the belief in the 77 and a half herbs.

According to old folklore, there is one herb for each of 77 known illnesses. The half herb is meant for the illness that has not yet been named or that no one fully understands.

The idea is poetic, but it also says a great deal about humanity’s historical relationship with nature. Before modern pharmacies, hospitals and laboratories existed, people’s health depended heavily on experience. Knowledge of plants was passed down from one generation to the next.

Someone knew which herb could reduce fever. Someone else knew what to use for coughing, stomach pain, wounds or anxiety.

On Enyovden, these plants were believed to possess their strongest powers. Timing was therefore crucial. The herbs had to be collected before sunrise, while the moisture of the night still covered the fields and meadows.

In some places, the herbs were tied together to form a large wreath. Walking through it became a symbolic cleansing and a wish for health during the year ahead.

Flowers in Sweden and Herbs in Bulgaria

Here we find one of the clearest similarities between Swedish Midsummer and Bulgarian Enyovden.

In Sweden, people make floral crowns and decorate the maypole with leaves and flowers. In Bulgaria, people collect herbs and create wreaths for health and protection.

Plants are central to both celebrations, but they are used in slightly different ways.

The Swedish flower crown is today mainly a symbol of summer, beauty and celebration. It is worn on the head, used as decoration and appears in almost every traditional image of Swedish Midsummer.

The Bulgarian herbal wreath has a more pronounced medicinal and spiritual role. It is not only meant to be beautiful. It is meant to protect, purify and heal.

At the same time, Sweden also has old beliefs that plants become magical during Midsummer night.

The best-known tradition is that an unmarried person should pick seven different kinds of flowers and place them under their pillow. During the night, the person is then said to dream of their future partner.

In some versions of the tradition, the flowers must be picked in complete silence. In others, the person must climb over seven fences. The exact ritual differed between regions, but the idea remained the same: during Midsummer night, nature could reveal the future.

Love, Health and the Future

Both Swedish Midsummer and Enyovden are filled with questions about the future.

Will I find love?

Will I remain healthy?

Will the harvest be good?

Will my family and animals survive the coming year?

In modern society, such questions may appear to be little more than folkloric curiosities. But for people living in agricultural communities, they were matters of life and death.

A failed harvest could mean hunger. Illnesses that can now be treated with medicine could once be fatal. Love and marriage were not only about romance, but also about security, the future of the family and the ability to survive.

The rituals of these holidays gave people a sense that they could influence things that otherwise lay beyond their control.

Flowers, herbs, water and sunlight became tools in a dialogue between humanity and nature.

The Maypole and the Sunrise

Perhaps the clearest difference between the two holidays lies in their central symbols.

In Sweden, the maypole is the heart of the celebration. It is decorated, raised and surrounded by dancing, music and games.

The pole can look slightly different depending on the region, but it often consists of a vertical pole with a horizontal crosspiece and two hanging wreaths. The exact origins of the tradition are debated, but it has long been closely associated with Swedish Midsummer.

In Bulgaria, there is no direct equivalent to the maypole.

Instead, the sun itself stands at the centre of the celebration.

According to folklore, the sun changes on Enyovden. It is said to dance or tremble at sunrise. People have traditionally gathered early in the morning to watch it rise and to interpret signs about the future.

Another belief says that the sun bathes in rivers, lakes and springs before beginning its journey toward winter. Through this act, the water is believed to receive healing powers.

People therefore visited natural water sources, washed themselves in running water or rolled in the morning dew to gain health.

In Sweden, people dance around a pole.

In Bulgaria, people wait for the sun itself to dance.

The Importance of Water

Water plays a role in Swedish Midsummer, especially because many people celebrate by the sea, a lake or in the archipelago. Yet water rarely has the same ritual importance as it does during Enyovden.

In Bulgaria, water is an active force in the holiday.

Washing one’s face in a spring, walking barefoot through the dew or bathing in a river is not simply about enjoying summer. It is a symbolic cleansing and a wish for health.

The dew is believed to carry nature’s power. According to tradition, anyone who rolls in the early morning dew may gain strength and protection.

It is easy to understand how such beliefs developed. After a warm Bulgarian spring and the beginning of summer, the cool morning dew is something tangible. It lies like a thin layer over the plants and disappears quickly as the sun rises.

It must be captured while it is still there.

Just like summer itself.

Two Different Climates Create Two Different Celebrations

Another important difference is the climate.

In Sweden, Midsummer marks the beginning of the short and long-awaited summer. Even though the days are already long, warmth is never guaranteed. A Swedish Midsummer may bring 25 degrees and sunshine, but it may just as easily bring rain, cold winds and the need for a winter jacket later in the evening.

There is something almost defiant about the Swedish celebration. We set the table outdoors and decide that it is summer, no matter what the thermometer says.

In Bulgaria, summer has often already arrived in full force by the time Enyovden is celebrated. The days are warmer, the vegetation more developed and the agricultural rhythm different.

For the Swede, the holiday is largely about welcoming the light and warmth.

For the Bulgarian, it is more about understanding, using and respecting the power of the sun.

The Swedish summer is something people wait for.

The Bulgarian summer is something people must live with, work in and sometimes protect themselves from.

Food and Community

Food is central to Swedish Midsummer.

There is a fairly clear menu, even though every family has its own traditions. Herring, potatoes, dill, sour cream and strawberries are almost compulsory. Drinking songs and toasts are also common.

Enyovden does not have the same standardised national meal.

The heart of the celebration lies more in the rituals connected with herbs, water and the sun. Local dishes, bread and family meals may be part of the day, but there is no single menu as strongly associated with the holiday as there is in Sweden.

Yet community is important in both traditions.

People gather. They sing, dance, tell stories and pass customs on to their children.

In Sweden, the celebration may take the form of a large gathering of family and friends.

In Bulgaria, Enyovden may be marked through local herb and folklore festivals, ceremonies and activities where older generations teach younger people how to collect herbs and make wreaths.

The Christian and the Pre-Christian

Both Midsummer and Enyovden show how older nature traditions became intertwined with Christianity.

Midsummer Day was historically linked to the feast of John the Baptist. In English and several other European languages, names connected to Saint John are still used for similar celebrations.

In modern Sweden, however, Midsummer is primarily a secular folk festival. Most people celebrating it do not think much about John the Baptist or the Church calendar.

In Bulgaria, the connection to the Orthodox Church is more visible. On 24 June, the birth of John the Baptist is celebrated alongside the older folk customs involving herbs, water and the sun.

This creates a holiday in which Christian belief and ancient nature mysticism exist side by side.

The Church speaks of baptism, purification and spiritual awakening.

Folklore speaks of healing water, magical herbs and a dancing sun.

The messages are different, but both revolve around cleansing, life and renewal.

The Great Difference: Folk Festival or Living Mysticism

Swedish Midsummer has become a strong national symbol. It is used in advertising, films, tourism and international presentations of Sweden.

The maypole, white clothes, floral crowns and bright nights have almost become an image of Swedish identity itself.

Enyovden does not have the same dominant position in modern Bulgarian society. Not every Bulgarian rises before dawn to gather herbs or roll in the dew.

The traditions are often stronger in rural areas, in certain regions, among folklore groups and during special festivals.

But perhaps this is also what makes Enyovden so fascinating.

The holiday feels less commercialised and closer to its mysterious roots. It still reminds us of a time when people truly believed that forests, water and the sun could speak to them.

Swedish Midsummer has largely become a social celebration.

Enyovden still carries clearer traces of ritual, mystery and respect for the invisible powers of nature.

The Same Longing in Two Countries

Despite all the differences, the two celebrations share a common core.

The Swede makes a flower crown.

The Bulgarian gathers herbs.

Swedes raise the maypole and dance around it.

Bulgarians greet the sunrise, walk through an herbal wreath and wash themselves in the morning water.

In Sweden, someone hopes to dream of their future love with seven flowers under their pillow.

In Bulgaria, someone seeks health, protection and answers in the herbs, the dew or their own shadow reflected in the water.

Both peoples pause at the same time of year.

They look toward the light.

They breathe in the scent of plants.

They are reminded that, despite all our technology and modernity, humanity is still dependent on nature.

We need the sun to live.

We need water.

We need the earth.

And we need one another.

Two Traditions That Can Meet

For someone living between Sweden and Bulgaria, there is an opportunity to unite these two worlds.

You can celebrate Swedish Midsummer with herring, new potatoes, strawberries and flower crowns. A few days later, you can meet Enyovden by going outside early in the morning, gathering herbs, feeling the dew beneath your feet and watching the sun rise over the mountains.

In the Pirin Mountains, this could become an especially powerful experience.

Imagine leaving Bansko early in the morning on 24 June. The air is still cool. The mountains lie dark against the sky. The grass is damp, and the scent of herbs rises from the ground.

Then the sun reaches the ridge, and the entire landscape changes.

At that moment, you understand that Enyovden is not merely an old tradition.

It is a way of experiencing nature.

In the same way, Swedish Midsummer is more than herring, schnapps and dancing frogs. It is a collective memory of long winters and the relief people feel when the light returns.

The Same Sun – Two Stories

Swedish Midsummer and Bulgarian Enyovden are not identical holidays. They have different symbols, different foods and different ways of celebrating.

But they come from the same human need.

The need to mark the rhythm of the year.

The need to celebrate the light.

The need to hope for love, health, fertility and a good future.

Sweden celebrates through the maypole, the dancing and the shared meal.

Bulgaria celebrates through the sun, the water, the dew and the herbs.

One tradition may be more social and festive.

The other may be more mysterious and ritualistic.

But above both countries stands the same sun.

And beneath it stand people who, at least for one day, remember that we are part of nature, not its masters.