Yes, Midsummer is the highlight of the Swedish calendar after Christmas, and besides pickled herring, the most common thing you’ll stumble upon at these parties is a large amount of alcohol, drunk while singing drinking songs – snapsvisor in Swedish.

Few countries (if any) really have drinking songs to the same capacity as the Swedes do, so what better time to look into this unusual phenomenon from an outsider’s perspective.

But whether you’re new to Sweden or a Midsummer veteran, you’ll probably be none the wiser as what on earth these songs are actually about. Some are pure nonsense, others are just plain confusing, but one thing we can say is that the lyrics are so odd they must have been written after consuming a large amount of snaps.

We’ve collected our six favourite snapsvisor and translated them to English.

Enjoy. Sjung hopp faderallallan lej!

1. Helan Går

Helan går literally translates as “the whole goes”. It’s about encouraging drinkers to drink helan (traditionally the first snaps of the evening), because if you don’t drink helan, you don’t get halvan (the second snaps of the evening).

Here it is in Swedish:

Helan går

Sjung hopp faderallan lallan lej

Helan går

Sjung hopp faderallan lej

Och den som inte helan tar

Han heller inte halvan får

Helan går

(Drink)

Sjuuuuuung hopp faderallan lej

And here’s a loose English translation:

The whole goes down

Sing hop fadarallan lallan lej

The whole goes down

Sing hop fadarallan lej

And he who doesn’t take the whole

Doesn’t get the half either

The whole goes down

[drink]

Siiiiiiing hop fadarallan lallan lej

2. & 3. The short Finnish and the long Finnish

This one is very simple, and takes a dig at Sweden’s next-door neighbours the Finns. In Sweden, a common stereotype of Finns is that they enjoy drinking. The lyrics are very simple. Here they are:

“NU!”

In English:

“NOW!”.

Similarly to the short Finnish, here’s the long Finnish:

“Inte nu, men NU!”

“Not now, but NOW!”

4. Teach your mother-in-law to swim

This is a charming drinking song about a man teaching his mother-in-law to swim by holding her firmly in the water by the chin, getting distracted by a snaps and letting go, after which she was never seen again. Delightful.

Here it is in Swedish:

En kall ruskig höst 

Kom vinden från öst

Och medförde ström och dimma

Å då tyckte jag,

Att lämpligt va’

Att lära min svärmor simma.

I havet ja lade henne galant

Och höll’na i hakan ganska bestant,

När bränningarna kom ur handen hon slant,

Sen dess har jag inte sett’na.

And in English:

One cold awful autumn,

The wind came from the east,

Bringing with it currents and mist.

And then I thought,

It was a good time,

To teach my mother-in-law to swim.

I lay her down gently in the sea,

And held her by the chin quite steadily,

When the snaps came along she slipped out of my hand,

And I haven’t seen her since.

5. Small frogs

Possibly the most well-known drinking song, små grodorna is also a popular children’s song sung at Midsummer when Swedes dance around the midsommarstång pretending to be – yep, you guessed it – small frogs.

Here’s how it goes:

Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.

Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.

Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de.

Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de.

Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,

kou ack ack ack ack kaa.

Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,

kou ack ack ack ack kaa.

And in English:

Little frogs, little frogs, are funny to look at.

Little frogs, little frogs, are funny to look at.

No ears, no ears, no tails have they.

No ears, no ears, no tails have they.

Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,

kou ack ack ack ack kaa.

Kou ack ack ack, kou ack ack ack,

kou ack ack ack ack kaa.

So, there you have it. We hope that clears things up next time you’re attending Midsummer (or any other party in Sweden, if we’re being honest), and the Swedes around you burst in to song. At least you’ll know what they’re singing about now.