The Minnesotan accent elicits its share of laughs. Watch a few minutes of Fargo and you’ll get a taste of some of the stronger North Minnesota accents, although I don’t think you really comprehend it until you hear a native speak. There’s also an endearing (or frustrating) habit of trailing off questions: “So are you going to plant your marigolds now or…?” “I’m thinking of doing it in a coupla weeks when the weather changes. Are you watching the kids still or…?” You have to tack the last word onto the end of the word before it and pronounce it “er” to get the right effect. Do that to the end of each of your questions and you’ll have it down pat.

As ludicrous as some of it sounds, Minnesotan lingo can be persistent. Even a non-native like me, born in and currently living in the South, still says “uff da” on occasions such as changing a particularly dirty diaper. And my husband still laughs at me every time.

But a lot of Minnesotans really do a lot of these things. You could even guess they enjoy them (“they’re not too bad”) by the way that things are done the same year after year after year.

Many of the traditions are Scandinavian. My Minnesotan grandmother comes from Swedish descent and my Minnesotan grandfather came from German stock, so as a family we were not unusual.

As far as my grandparents were concerned, we certainly kept the Minnesotan green lawn tradition. Lawns must be continuously tended in all the green months (there are only three or four). The other day, driving down the road in Florida, I glimpsed something on the side of the road that gave me a sudden stab of homesickness. When I tried to figure out what had brought on the emotion, I realized it was a small section of green grass, mowed to the quick.

While we’re talking of the few warmish months of the year, another Minnesotan tradition is spending the summer at the lake. Many (the lucky ones) have cabins on a Minnesotan or Wisconsonian lake and a boat for their “back yard.” (There are traditionally 10,000 lakes in Minnesota so no worries if you’re trying to find one.) The not-so-lucky ones drive to their nearest lake as often as possible. It’s a novelty to enjoy water that’s not frozen over.

Not that frozen-over water can’t be enjoyed. If you live in Minnesota, you use the winters for ice-fishing, playing hockey, ice skating, snowmobiling, skiing, and just driving your big truck onto the lake for the heck of it.

Since we are approaching a slew of holidays, I will touch on some of the fall and winter celebrations of these hardy folk.

Fall

Driving an hour or two “up north” is traditional, to catch sight of the best and brightest fall leaves at just the right point in the season.

Halloween

From Halloween to New Year and beyond, lighting up homes, streets, and houses with holiday decor is a big deal. This is based on my own observations, not a scientific study, but I have a hunch that these holiday lights are more important in the more northern and colder states. I have seen huge displays in southern states as well, but there is something a little more mandatory (dare I say desperate?) in places where people know the sun is coming up at 7 AM and setting by 4 PM in the winter.

According to Minneapolis/St. Paul TV station WCCO, Halloween traditions like trick-or-treating and costume parties had their American origins in Anoka, Minnesota, in 1921. The pesky Anokan teenagers were turning over outhouses and setting cows loose in town, so a town businessman started the holiday festivities to keep them busy doing other things on Halloween. Congress gave Anoka the title “Halloween Capital of the World” in 1937. Their annual festivities now include things like three parades, a 5K run, and an “Orange-Tie” ball.

Thanksgiving

Malls are a fixture in the lives of many Minnesotans. After all, Minnesota does have the second biggest mall in the world, the Mall of America. There are several cold months each year when people need places to hang out, watch movies, walk for exercise, and of course, shop. Thus, one of the most important Thanksgiving traditions in this wintry state is getting up as early as the stores open on Black Friday after Thanksgiving, to race for the best merchandise and try to get as much of the Christmas shopping done as possible.

Santa Lucia Day

The Swedish Santa Lucia Day is celebrated on December 13th. On this day the oldest daughter of the household wears a long white gown trimmed with red ribbons and a crown of lit candles. At dawn she walks, singing, throughout the house waking up family members. Any accompanying brothers may wear long pointed hats with gold stars. The children serve specially made Santa Lucia buns and coffee. (If drunk the Swedish way, the coffee will be taken through sugar cubes held in the drinker’s front teeth.)

Christmas

Along with the parades, concerts, and street lightings that are common in many regions of the country, Minnesota features a few unique traditions. There’s the Saint Paul Winter Carnival with its snow carving and ice sculpting competitions, Frozen 5K, Torchlight Parade, and Royal Coronation.

There’s the homemade lefse and lutefisk Christmas dinner (flatbread and gelatinous blocks of Norwegian fish prepared in lye).

There’s the less official tradition of giving pajamas and/or sweatsuits as gifts to help loved ones get through the long winter--preferably in Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Vikings, or University of Minnesota Golden Gophers motifs.

There’s also the decorated Christmas tree, which is a tradition often attributed to Germany. Given the number of Germans in Minnesota, you could almost say the Tannenbaum was a Minnesotan tradition.

My own family had a tradition based around the Dayton’s department store holiday show, which had a new theme each year from a children’s book. Going to the show was our big downtown day. We walked through the unfailingly gorgeous show, ate lunch at the restaurant at the top of the building, walked through all the furniture rooms that had their own specific themes carried out in their own Christmas trees, and then picked out any Christmas ornament we wanted (in a certain dollar range).

New Year

As far as I can tell, Minnesotans celebrate New Year’s in many of the same ways other regions do. I think the true New Year for Minnesotans is actually the first day of 50-degree or warmer weather in the spring. On this day, people break out their shorts and barbecue grills. As days stay lighter longer, it is customary to stay outside for all of the daylight hours when possible.

In addition to the holiday activities, Minnesota has a long tradition of becoming home to refugees, which in the early days were mainly German, Swedish, and Norwegian. They have included over the years many Hmong, Somalis, Vietnamese, Ethiopians, Liberians, Cambodians, Bosnians, and people from the former Soviet Union. Minnesotan traditions will continue to be impacted by cultures outside of Scandinavia.

Minnesotans may or may not crack a smile, but do they thrive just a little bit on the fun made of their culture in books like How to Talk Minnesotan, the Prairie Home Companion Radio Show, popular movies, and articles like this? Ya sure. You betcha.

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