Historical roots of the Swedish commune depicted in ‘Midsommar’

"Midsommar" is a horror film, and overall, it is a story about a cult community. Hårga, a commune located in northern Sweden, hidden behind forests and isolated from the world, is portrayed as tranquil and mysterious.

The main characters, both male and female, converge on this commune after a series of twists and turns, with the original intention of attending a 9-day feast, but they soon find themselves caught in a bizarre and terrifying sequence of events.

Here, the people all wear white robes, women in long dresses and men in long pants. They dine, sleep, work, and share emotions together. Their lives are governed by ancient runes, and they follow centuries-old rituals. It's a community, an almost closed society. Based on what is shown in the film and the information provided about the characters, we can summarize some of the operational principles of this commune, such as:

1. Economic Activities: Their sources of livelihood include logging, flax processing, folk medicine, and a hydroelectric plant.

2. Living Arrangements: Before the age of 36, everyone sleeps in a common space. After turning 36, individuals are moved to labor houses. This transition is based on their "Life Seasons Philosophy": childhood up to 18 years is considered spring, 18-36 years is summer primarily dedicated to worship, 36-54 years is autumn involving labor, and 54-72 years is winter, where individuals become mentors.

3. Child-Rearing: Babies are collectively cared for by everyone.

4. Work and Role Allocation: Roles and responsibilities are determined by the qualities exhibited during childhood.

5. Marriage and Relationships: To maintain a pure bloodline, partners must be approved by the elders. Sometimes, cousins can become partners, but incest is taboo, so they invite outsiders to form marital unions.

Although the commune of Hårga in the film is fictional, it has certain historical prototypes.

Aside from the cult elements, it evokes memories of the late 1960s and early 1970s Western world's fascination with Hippie Communes, also known as communes.

The 1960s left us not only with prototypes for much of modern culture but also with the sensibility of the hippies who aimed to reconnect with nature and embrace communal living. "Be together" was a famous slogan of the time that reflected the primary lifestyle of hippies.

If you've seen "Easy Rider" (1969), Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, two men with long hair, wearing unconventional clothing, riding Harley motorcycles, roam the roads. They pass through isolated hippie communes where young people have left the big cities to gather spontaneously in the countryside, leading a life far from industrial civilization.

In those communes, young people would walk barefoot in fields, sow their own crops, wear flowers in their hair, and live together in large wooden houses, sharing meals and raising children collectively.

They would pray together before meals, saying, "Thank you for the food, let us share it together." After meals, they would dress up as Egyptian queens, Jesus, or Caesar and perform silent plays on stage.

Life in these communes was naturally humble but simple, free, and pure, filled with a heartfelt and unpretentious joy.

There's a dialogue in one of these scenes where someone remarks, "There's only sand here; they can't grow anything." Dennis Hopper looks around and confidently says, "They'll succeed." It's a belief that they will succeed, grow food, and find happiness.

Novelist Lauren Groff wrote a book called "Arcadia," which was also based on these hippie communes of the era, depicting a utopian social experiment spanning several decades. "The eternal light is in every person's heart, in every inch of earth. This stone, this ice, this tree, this bird, everything deserves our goodwill," is how it's described in the book.

In the early 1970s in western New York state, a diverse group of hippies (rock musicians, wanderers, nudists, and more) arrived in disheveled conditions to gather at an abandoned mansion in the countryside.

This piece of land, these buildings, became a gift of love from the universe, and it became the Arcadia.

They named their commune "Arcadia," which means "I am here too." The commune had clear principles of joining and living: equality, love, and labor. Everyone committed to working was welcomed, and all rules were decided collectively. Property was held in common, they worked collectively, practiced pastoralism, followed a vegetarian diet, and embraced open sexual relationships. The hippies built their own secluded "Arcadia" in the countryside, living a pure and honest collective life.

By the late 1960s, communal living had become a prevalent trend within hippie culture.

In the book "Counterculture Utopia: Hippie's Epic Journey to Communal Bliss," it is documented that before 1965, American society had only established 500 to 700 communes over two centuries. However, in the short span of seven years from 1965 to 1972, thousands, even tens of thousands of communes were established.

Each hippie commune was unique. Some included elements of religious devotion, while others were entirely secular. Some were self-sustaining agricultural and artisanal communities, while others didn't reject capitalist operations and even started their own businesses or sold products like rock albums. There was no one-size-fits-all model, and each hippie commune developed its own culture, rules, and personality over time and with different groups of people.

The earliest hippie commune in the United States can be traced back to 1965 with Drop City. Drop City continued to operate into the early 1970s, although it only became widely known a few years after its rapid establishment in the southeastern part of Colorado by four young artists from the University of Kansas who were looking to create live art and a social experiment.

However, it wasn't until after 1967 that it truly became recognized.

What happened in 1967? The "Summer of Love" in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco.

In the early 1960s, Haight-Ashbury was known as the "capital of hippies." In January of that year, the hippies gathered in San Francisco for their first event, the famous "Human Be-In," which is also considered the prelude to the "Summer of Love."

At this event, Timothy Leary, a well-known advocate of LSD and former Harvard psychology professor, introduced the famous slogan: "Turn on, tune in, drop out!" This slogan also became a hallmark of the entire hippie movement.

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Hippie, where "hip" originally referred to the hips of a person, later came to mean someone who was in the know or at the forefront of popular trends. In the context of the "Beat Generation," hip often referred to those who were ahead of the curve. The hippies, disciples of the "Beat Generation," became synonymous with the "generation of rebellion" throughout the 1960s.

They opposed the Vietnam War, consumerism, sexual conservatism, racial and gender discrimination; they resisted capitalism, criticized government restrictions on civil rights, rebelled against traditional lifestyles, supported feminism and environmentalism, and opposed old customs and politics. This generation of young people, by escaping the city and choosing self-exile, deeply engraved the pursuit of "self" and "freedom" in their hearts, sparking a "life revolution."

Interestingly, Herbert Marcuse once predicted in "One-Dimensional Man" that the ones who would bring about revolution should be wanderers and societal outsiders. In reality, the core of the hippie generation consisted of children from middle-class families. They had received good education, came from well-off backgrounds, yet chose to leave behind secure homes, schools, and stable lives.

In the summer of 1967, they left without saying goodbye, departing their hometowns and traveling in buses to San Francisco. They wore flowers in their hair as a sign, and this marked the beginning of their "Summer of Love" in the Haight-Ashbury community.

At the center of Haight was an organization called "The Diggrs," named after a group of Englishmen from the 17th century who might have been some of the earliest people to live in communes based on needs. The "Diggers" inherited this utopian ideal and would distribute food for free on the lawns in Haight, provide essential goods, and demand nothing in return, focusing only on spiritual elevation.

However, the overly idealistic "Summer of Love" quickly faltered. As the movement grew, particularly with the attraction of elements such as drugs and sexual freedom, people with complex ideas quickly flocked to Haight-Ashbury, making it a mixed bag of individuals, leading to frequent conflicts.

With subsequent economic issues and stores closing down, the streets piled up with uncollected garbage, and San Francisco quickly became a slum.

The "Summer of Love" failed, but the hippies did not lose hope. Haight-Ashbury wasn't the end; instead, it became a beginning. Communes like Drop City were discovered, and a large number of communal villages began to appear, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, to New York's East Village, and across the country.

Learning from the lessons of Haight, most of the subsequent communal villages had stricter requirements in the organization process, with shared ideologies and behavior, emphasizing working together, equality, and mutual care. "Living in America but not belonging to America" was a common sentiment. Communal activities in the United States continued until the late 1970s and early 1980s when they gradually declined.

Meanwhile, this wave of hippie communes quickly spread to Europe, where European youth embraced it enthusiastically, and communal villages were soon established.

In Germany, there were as many as 110,000 such communes, and in the suburbs of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, there exists the largest "free village" in Northern Europe, which continues to operate to this day.

A group of people with no blood or marital ties living together like a family, showing love, support, and sharing among themselves. This kind of idea, reminiscent of a utopian world, has been a beautiful vision that humanity has been exploring since the English social thinker Thomas More wrote "Utopia" in 1516.

Communes can be seen as miniature models of ideal societies based on common ownership. Some argue that the hippie communes of the 1960s and the communal practices of utopian socialists like Owen were not fundamentally different. In fact, in the 19th century, there were many communal experiments in North America.

These included the New Harmony commune, the Brook Farm community, Etienne Cabet's Icaria, as well as Mormon and Shaker communities, and the most iconic of them all, the Oneida community.

Oneida, named after an Indian tribe, may have been chosen for its connotations of communal living. Founded by John Noyes, a proponent of Owen's ideas and an early advocate of "Bible communism," Oneida lasted for an impressive 33 years from 1848 to 1881. Noyes established the Oneida community as a practical embodiment of his beliefs.

At Oneida, property was held in common, everyone was equal, and they worked collectively. Their activities included fruit and vegetable canning, silversmithing, and more. Within a few years, they quickly achieved financial balance, and during its 30-year existence, the community grew to its peak membership of 306 people.

The mid-19th century saw the emergence of utopian socialism in response to severe societal issues such as inequality and wealth disparity. Communes became the ideal solution people offered at the time. This idealistic vision was equally prevalent during the 1960s with the hippie communes.

Of course, most commune experiments likely faced increasing differentiation in later stages due to economic conditions, division of labor, and other factors, ultimately leading to failure. In worse cases, communes could incubate nefarious actions. For example, Charles Manson, the infamous cult leader and serial killer of the 1960s, was skilled at brainwashing his followers using a communal "love and drugs" format.

Or, as in "Midsommar," where the idyllic vision of communal living sheds its innocence, revealing a cult with strange logic and eerie beliefs lurking behind it.

The reason why utopia is called utopia inevitably means that there will always be a vast gap between idealism and reality. However, in any case, this somewhat eccentric exploration of an "alternative family" style is always worth celebrating and praising. "Midsommar" also carries a theme of "anti-family," from the beginning where the traditional family structure disintegrates for the female protagonist, to the end where she finds acceptance and a different way of life within the commune.

The life revolution sparked by communes is not just about the mind but also the body. You could say it's a private rebellion against life.

The connection between people without the need for blood ties, shared identities, and a return to nature while rejecting industrialization. In today's world, where consumerism and capitalist traps surround us, the commune format holds a real significance. For contemporary young people who rent in big cities and commute between the city and the suburbs every day for a paycheck, the commune can be an ideal they hold onto. It can also represent a possible and alternative future.