“Soon is the end, Winter’s Witch”

For those of you that know, you know (wink). For those that don’t, you are probably thinking “What the heck is that?”. And for those that don’t know but want to know, stop reading, head on up to Ephraim, WI around the weekend of Father’s Day and come back here. I’ll wait…

Welcome back! How was your trip!? You just experienced your very first Fyr Bal Festival and are already planning next years trip. You’re welcome.

A great article regarding this Festival can be found here from the Door County Pulse, but I will quote from it the juicy parts for you.

For over 50 years the Village of Ephraim undergoes a transformation. Normally a tranquil lakeside community, during this weekend the village unfolds into a flurry of activity for ‘Fyr Bal’—one of Door County’s best known, if least understood, cultural traditions. Fyr Bal, Norwegian for ‘bonfire,’ goes by many names in other cultures – St. John’s Eve, Sankhansaften, Litha, Kupalo, Jonsok, Juhannus, Pluneria Hiera, and Midsummer’s Eve, to name a few. These celebrations, though manifested differently in various cultures, share some fascinating historical connections, most obvious of which is their common observance of the summer solstice, when the sun reaches its most extreme northward position (or southward position in the Southern Hemisphere)…roughly a dozen bonfires are lit around Eagle Harbor, and those who’ve seen the ceremonial fire lighting will tell you that the fires aren’t your ordinary campground variety. Large branches and logs are piled together, anywhere from 8 to 12 feet high, in the shape of tee-pees; and, just as Ephraim’s Scandinavian counterparts do, a ‘witch’ (in this case a small cloth doll) is burned on the main fire in front of the village hall to symbolize the death of winter and the triumph of light and warmth. By Madeline Harrison, Door County Living – May 1st, 2004

Fyr Bal Festival is a LOT of fun, and I have been planning trips up there around this event for many years. From pie eating contests, Ice cream eating contests, live music, great food, great activities (you have to do the corn-hole tournament) great people and of course, a great place to spend a day! This year was my first year having an Art Tent set up there, along with many other talented vendors, and that was surreal! I wanted to have a special painting and prints for this event, so I painted this one a few weeks in advance and I debuted this one up there. It was very well received and I sold many prints, and had great conversations with people about it and Fry Bal in general. It helps that most all in attendance immediately recognized what it was, and it helped even more that the exact view of my painting was live and in-person just a block down the road! I got so many people saying “I just saw that over there!”

This one was finished rather quickly, but not without some frustrations. It’s not often I nail the colors right away, but this one was perfect, right up until I started painting the wood tee-pee. The first attempt I was horrified. It just didn’t match the rest of the painting, which was pretty much in its completed and current form. Colors were off, details didn’t match the feel of the rest of the painting, lots of things just seemed “off”. My husband has been very helpful and supportive on my art journey, and he said something early on that has stuck with me when I reach the “arrrgghh!” stages while painting. “Paint covers paint”, he said. Ah, my brilliant husband. Those words play on repeat in my head while painting. “Yuck, that’s not right. Oh well, paint covers paint”. And what a life’s lesson as well. When you are in control, and things don’t go quite as originally planned, you have the power to change course, try again, try different things…When you are in control, you don’t have to settle for what you get. If you don’t like it, cover it up with another pass. Your efforts will ultimately reward you. Failure is the final outcome only when you stop trying to succeed.

My husband is not always brilliant…Oh, were you waiting for me to say something profound? Nope, that’s it.