In 1952 the Swedish Parliament decided that Midsummer should always be celebrated on a weekend. As a result, the observance of Midsummer now varies between June 20 and 26.
In many countries the summer solstice is celebrated with huge outdoor bonfires. This was once part of the Swedish festival as well, but these days the bonfire is most associated in Sweden with Walpurgis Night celebrations on April 30. Instead the focus of Midsummer celebrations is the maypole (or Midsummer pole) decorated with greenery and flowers. As it turns out, the maypole is a comparatively new part of Swedish Midsummer tradition. It came to Sweden in the late Middle Ages from Germany, where the pole was decorated with leaves and raised on May 1 (hence the name). Since spring comes later to Sweden it was hard to find the greenery to decorate the pole on May 1, so the tradition was moved to Midsummer. Some sources also attribute the perpetuation of the term majstång, or maypole, to the archaic Swedish word maja, meaning “to decorate with green leaves.”