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- Topic: Swedish >
- "Midsommar är i juni."
40 Comments
Just to clarify, Midsummer is also known as the Summer Solstice. I believe that the former is more well-known in Europe than America, while the latter is definitely more common here. I've actually run into people here who think Midsummer is somewhere in August O.o
Well, in Swedish, ”midsommar” is a holiday that is celebrated at summer solstice, but they are not the same thing. Midsommar is the name of the holiday whereas summer solstice is known as ”sommarsolståndet”
We are celebrating something like Midsummer in Latvia as well (just across the Baltic sea from Sweden). It is the day, in which the time of daytime is the longest.
Your explanation makes more sense... If you take summer in countries in north of equador, the period that goes from summer solsticium to the autumn equinocium, obviously the middle of summer is in august... This Midsommer must come from the fact that spring and summer are the warm seasons, when the day is longer then night... And the summer solsticium is right in the middle of it... It is just a theory, although
Actually, from what I understand, in antiquity, people considered the start of the seasons not to be the solstices/equinoxes, but somewhere in between them, so that the solstices and equinoxes were actually in the middle of the seasons.
The seasons start on different dates even between European countries. For example summer starts on the 21st of June in France, the 1st of June in the UK and the 1st of May in Ireland*
*This is a contentious issue, as many people still use the old system based on the amount of light and aligned with the pagan festivals on the first of February, May, August and November while others follow the UK example based on what are (theoretically!) the warmer months
I also think that 'summer solstice' should be accepted as correct. The midsommar festival is celebrated in Sweden on the day of the solstice, but is unknown here in the U.S. So if I am asked to translate into English, I need to translate to something actually used in English, and that is not - in this context -midsummer (which does, at least here in the midwest, mean 'the middle of summer, i.e. the middle of the hot season, usually July or early August - used as such for example for fruit that ripen 'in midsummer').
Well, if that proper noun is truly unknown in English, you don't translate it at all. It would be capitalized and spelled in English as "Midsommar". This is the same as you might refer to other things that don't have local anglicized names like perhaps "Ramadan" you don't translate into English before writing.
That being said, the holiday was co-opted long ago by (some) Christian sects to be labeled Saint John's Day (and Saint John's Eve) for the nativity of their martyr in the same way the nativity of a later martyr relabeled the traditional winter solstice holiday as Christmas, so it is actually not completly unknown to many English speakers and I think it is celebrated nationally in some Anglo countries.
I think it's sometimes known as capitalized proper noun "Midsummer" (and Midsummer's Eve) Even your suggestion might less commonly be correct, the holiday being sometimes known as capitalized proper noun "Summer Solstice" (and Summer Solstice Eve), not to be confused with the certainly incorrect translation "the summer solstice" being the actual astronomical solstice of summer.
Shakespeare would presumably disagree with your contention that Midsummer isn't used in English, given the word is literally in the title of one of his most famous comedies. Without a hyphen space, midsummer's day is definitely the 21st June.
The confusion comes because temperatures are higher in july and august, because of inertia.
1438
"I've actually run into people here who think Midsummer is somewhere in August" - that's because "midsummer" sounds like "middle of Summer season", an Summer in the US starts on the day of summer solstice and ends on the day of autumnal equinox -- the middle of this period is in early August.
Should 'Midsommar is in June' be accepted? I think because it's a Swedish holiday, it should be treated more as a loan word than a direct translation.
To be fair, this is rather vague as a comment. I live in Sweden and when people here talk about midsommar its usually to do with the holiday period and not referring to the solstice day.
To translate this it could be that you are translating when the swedish holiday is as equally as when you are saying the solstice is. Sorry, just think this is too vague to not allow both translations.
Just my 2p :)
- 1358
Solstice is solstånd, though we rarely use that word on its own, we usually specify: sommarsolståndet is Summer solstice.
But that doesn't mean the same thing, does it? That would mean something like "around the middle of summer", whereas Midsummer is a fixed holiday.
- 2212
I don't think the difference is as strong in English since it's not really a holiday in the English speaking world. The spelling wouldn't have made me think one thing or the other in English. I think you'd get your answer from the context more than anything. If someone says I'll be back in mid summer, that's clearly an adverbial phase due to the rest of the context. I think it's also just not said that often. I think 'in the middle of the summer' would be a more typical way of talking about it in English, which is why I was surprised to get it wrong rather than the spaces being extremely meaninful. Duo is also just so lenient about typos and extra spaces that I didn't think it would care (which I generally appreciate - my keyboard is getting old and spacing related typos abound, especially on timed practices).
Midsummer in English means the middle of summer. There is no "Midsummer" holiday in the English speaking world. I didn't realize this was referring to a specific holiday until I checked the comment section. I think this will likely confuse other English speakers as well since it is a generic term for us.
It's actually wrong for another reason too (Zmezlina is perfectly correct); "mid" is a prefix, and it's incorrect to use it as a word. "Mid-summer" is around the start of August; Midsummer is the 21st June, Mid summer is a grammatical error.
Yes, and one would use lower case for a generic mid-summer but uppercase to indicate a holiday named Midsummer. The reader need not be familiar with the holiday to notice the difference.
Thinking more about this, I think the required answer here of 'midsummer' is wrong. The Swedish 'midsommar' and the English 'midsummer' are actually what's known as 'false friends' - words that seem to be the equivalents because they sound or look the same, but are not. See my earlier comment as to why.
