Kräftskiva

While in the US Rasmus got to experience a very Maryland tradition – Crabs and Old Bay. Actually twice. And everytime someone (or many people) would ask – “do you eat crabs in Sweden? Do you have crab fests?”. The answer was yes we eat crabs, but not like this, but we do have a crayfish party or Kräftskiva. And a few weekends ago one of our Swedish friends hosted one so that the displaced Swedes could have their crayfish and also share them with the rest of us here in Norway.

Is a Kräftskiva like a crab fest? At both you eat crustaceans. At both it takes a good bit of work to get any meat. And both are during the late summer. However. A crab fest is messier (thanks to the Old Bay). A Kräftskiva has funnier hats. A crab fest has newspaper on the table. A Kräftskiva has swedish drinking songs (about bumble bees of all things?). If there are any sides while eating crabs it may be something like corn on the cob. A Kräftskiva has sides of salads, bread, and cheese.

A Kräftskiva (pronounced kreft-hweeeva) started because early in 1900’s you could only harvest the crayfish in the fall. Often (and advisably) you have them outside (due to the smell). There are cray fish decorations – plates, napkins, bibs, hats, and man-in-the moon lanterns. When you eat the crayfish, you suck / slurp the juice out of the crayfish before eating it. And Swedes are really into their drinking songs, so there were plenty of those. My favorite one is sung to the song of popeye the sailor man and is translated something like
“we are small bees bzzz bzz, we are small bees bzzz bzzz, we are small bees, we drink the sting of a wasp, we are small bees bzzz bzzz”.

I was worried that because many people weren’t Swedish they wouldn’t get into the silliness of it – the hats, the bibs, the songs, but everyone did! Although we would have to sing each song 3-6 times just so everyone got it.

What's a fun summer tradition for your family?