Crayfish party!

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to participate in a traditional Swedish Kräftskiva, or crayfish party.  These parties originated back when it was illegal to catch crayfish until the crayfish trapping season started in late August. 

Our landlords here on the farm opened up one of the barns and invited all the tenants who live here to come and celebrate...I think there were around 60-70 people in total.  The barn was decked out with paper lanterns and a big stereo system with disco lights, which really came in handy later in the evening when the tipsy dancing began.  Unfortunately M was away at sea, but his brother was here to help initiate me on proper crayfish-partying.  The rules are pretty simple: grab a crayfish, crack it open and suck out as much meat and juice as you can, sing lots of rowdy songs, and (most importantly) drink snaps at the end of every song.  Some neighbors gave me a taste of dill-flavored snaps, which I don't think would work with very many foods in very many situations except for washing down crayfish!

As one might expect, there is not a hell of a lot of meat inside a crayfish.  And, it takes some work getting the little buggers open.  So, between singing at the top of your lungs and drinking a shot of booze every few minutes while having not-quite-so-much food in your stomach, you end up getting really drunk, really fast.  Here's the official version of the drinking song Helan Går, they way it's supposed to be sung:

Loosely translated, the words mean:

 

The whole shot goes
     Sing hop fa-da-ra-la-la-la-lay 

The whole shot goes 
Sing hop fa-da-ra-la-lay
And he who doesn't take the whole shot 
  Doesn't get the half shot either
The whole shot goooooooooes
[Drink the whole shot]
Sing hopp fa-da-ra-la-lay

Now, here's how the song ends up sounding toward the end of the night (not my video): 

It was a really fun party, especially since my house was just a few hundred tipsy meters down the road at the end of the night.  Next year I'll try to remember to eat more bread to balance out all the booze, my hangover will thank me in the morning.