Migrant Tales wishes all of its readers a magical and wonderful Midsummer. While we celebrate the longest day of the year in Finland, in Bolivia they honor the shortest and the coldest.
In many respects, Midsummer is like the legend when Väinämöinen, one of the heroes of the Kalevala, built a copper boat and sailed towards the fiery sunset. Instead of Väinämöinen, it’s the year that begins its long journey today to the darkness of winter.
Thus the ancient Väinämöinen,
In his copper banded vessel,
Left his tribe in Kalevala,
Sailing o’er the rolling billows,
Sailing through the azure vapors,
Sailing through the dusk of evening,
Sailing to the fiery sunset,
To the higher-landed regions,
To the lower verge of heaven;
Quickly gained the far horizon,
Gained the purple-colored harbor.*
*Emil O. Tolonen: Kalevala – The Epic of the Finns. Finnish Daily Publishing Company, Duluth, Minnesota 1929. p. 17.