On the morning of Midsummer Eve, Anna’s aunts, uncles, and cousins arrived at the cottage. Midsummer celebrated the lightest day of the year, when the sky over the coast barely darkened at night. 

​

Anna and her relatives dressed a large pole and two wreaths with leafy birch twigs and flowers. They raised the pole on a meadow next to the cottage. 

​

That afternoon, they danced in a ring around the pole. They sang, twirled, and skipped, then slowly walked around the ring holding hands. Young and old, everyone could be in the dance.