Fyr Bal

Door County is a Wisconsin peninsula located between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. The county is home to multiple cherry and apple orchards and Land-O-Lakes diary farms. Friendly, picturesque harbor towns with names like Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, and Sister Bay are abundant with quaint shops and art galleries, and the most wonderful bakeries producing flavorful breads, fudge, cherry pies, delicious cherry strudel, and many other varieties of gourmet foods made from the yearly cherry harvest. It’s truly a smorgasbord of everything cherries! What’s that saying, “Life’s just a bowl of cherries”…that’s Door County!

One of the most interesting traditions here is the fish boil. Fresh whitefish from Lake Michigan is boiled with onions and potatoes in a big kettle over an open wood fire, with a dramatic “boil over” sending flames soaring into the air, signaling that dinner is ready. We were witness to a fish boil when we went to the annual Fyr Bal in Ephraim.


Boiling the Fish The Boil Over
Removing the Fish
Dinner's Ready!!

No, I did not misspell Fyr Bal. That translates into “bonfire” in Norwegian. Ephraim holds this festival annually. It takes place on the weekend closest to the summer solstice and marks the beginning of summer each year in Door County.

In pagan traditions, it was believed that lighting of bonfires on Midsummer’s Eve helped scare away evil spirits and was a necessary means of asking for bountiful harvests and good fortune. The local Fyr Bal is to scare away the “winter witch” and usher in the summer. Bonfires were built along the shoreline around Eagle Harbor; when the elected chieftain lit the official bonfire then the others followed. It was quite the spectacle to see the fires burning around the lake. After all the fires were lit, a spectacular fireworks display over the harbor followed.
Tepees of Wood Await Lighting

Bonfires Burn Around the Lake
Pagan Traditions