Culture of Minnesota facts for kids
The culture of Minnesota is a special part of the United States with ideas and traditions from many different groups. These include people from Scandinavia (like Norway and Sweden), Finland, Ireland, Germany, and Native American tribes. All these groups have helped shape life in this cold state, known for its farms and mining.
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Minnesotans and Their Traditions
People in Minnesota are often known for being very polite, a trait called "Minnesota nice". They also have strong family ties and a sense of community. Potlucks, where everyone brings a dish to share, are very popular, especially at church events. You'll often find different kinds of "hot dish" (a type of casserole) and "jello salads" at these gatherings.
Many movies and TV shows, like Fargo and Grumpy Old Men, and even the radio show A Prairie Home Companion, try to show what Minnesotan culture, speech, and manners are like.
The Great Minnesota Get-Together
The Minnesota State Fair is a huge event that shows off a lot about the state's culture. It's called The Great Minnesota Get-Together and millions of people visit it each year! The fair celebrates everything from fine art and science to agriculture and food. You can see amazing seed art, butter sculptures of dairy princesses, and even a barn where baby animals are born. Smaller versions of these fairs happen in counties all over the state.
Other big yearly festivals include the Saint Paul Winter Carnival and the Minneapolis Aquatennial. There are also music festivals like the Mill City Music Festival and the 10,000 Lakes Festival.
Minnesota's Food Scene
Minnesota has many wild foods you can find, like wild rice, blueberrys, raspberrys, and hazelnuts. You can also find lots of fish, like trout and walleye, in the state's many lakes. These foods have been important to Native American communities for a very long time. For example, the Ojibwe people see wild rice as more than just food; it's a special part of their culture and ceremonies.
As people from other countries moved to Minnesota, they brought their food traditions. You'll find foods from Scandinavia and Germany like lefse (a soft flatbread), lutefisk (a fish dish), rosettes (cookies), and sausages.
More recently, people from Vietnam, Somalia, Laos, and Mexico have moved to Minnesota. They've brought their own delicious foods like cha-lua (Vietnamese sausage), summer rolls, taquitos, and tortillas.
Farmers in Minnesota have also created new kinds of apples that grow well in the cold climate. These include the Haralson, Honeycrisp, and Sweetango apples.
At the Minnesota State Fair, you can find all sorts of fun foods "on a stick," like Pronto Pups (corn dogs) and deep-fried candy bars. While these aren't everyday Minnesota foods, they are a big part of the fair experience!
Music in Minnesota
Music has played a big role in Minnesota's history and culture. The main music scene is in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Many famous artists from Minnesota started their careers there. Rural Minnesota also has a strong folk music scene, with traditional Swedish, Finnish, and Norwegian music.
Some very famous musicians from Minnesota include Bob Dylan, who grew up in Hibbing and started his music journey in Minneapolis. Prince, a multi-platinum soul singer, also came from Minneapolis. Other popular bands like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü also got their start there. More recently, the Twin Cities have become known for hip-hop artists like Atmosphere and Brother Ali.
Sports and Fun Activities
Minnesota loves sports! The state has professional teams in all the major sports, like baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. The University of Minnesota is also part of the big Big Ten for college sports.
In the Twin Cities, there's a club for Irish sports like hurling, camogie, and Gaelic football. In 2019, the women's camogie team from this club even won a big award at the World Games in Dublin, Ireland!
Minnesotans and visitors enjoy many outdoor activities, especially in the warm summers. But the state is really known for its winters. Minnesota has produced Olympic curlers and skiers. People from Minnesota also invented the snowmobile, Rollerblades, and water skiing! Many people here love ice fishing and playing ice hockey. Eveleth, Minnesota is even home to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.
With more than 10,000 lakes, Minnesota is a great place for water activities. It has the most boat registrations per person of any state!
A fun fact: Kids in Minnesota play a game called "Duck Duck Gray Duck," which is different from "Duck Duck Goose" played in most other states.
Arts and Performances
The Minneapolis-Saint Paul area is a big center for the arts in the Midwest. It has major fine art museums like the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center. There are also professional music groups like the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra that perform concerts and offer educational programs.
Many people in the area go to plays, music shows, and comedy events. This might be because of the cold winters, which make indoor activities popular! The famous Guthrie Theater moved into a new building in 2006, which has three stages and overlooks the Mississippi River. Minneapolis-Saint Paul actually has more theater seats per person than any city in the U.S. except New York City!
The Minnesota Fringe Festival is a yearly event that celebrates all kinds of performances, including theatre, dance, puppetry, and musicals. It's the largest festival of its kind in the United States. There are also great theaters just for young people, like the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
Minnesota's Weather and Culture
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Minnesota's climate has really shaped its culture. Minnesotans often talk about their "theater of seasons." They have a late but strong spring, a summer full of water sports, a fall with beautiful colorful leaves, and a long winter that people enjoy with outdoor sports.
"Summer at the lake" is a big tradition. Water skiing was even invented in Minnesota! The Minneapolis Aquatennial has a fun milk carton boat race where people build boats out of milk cartons and float them on lakes.
To people from outside Minnesota, the winters can seem very cold. Minnesotans sometimes joke that there are only two seasons: Winter and Road Construction! This is because the long winters damage roads, and then in the short summers, there's a lot of repair work.
The city of St. Paul started the tradition of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival after a journalist called the city "another Siberia." In response, the city built a huge ice palace in 1886. This carnival now has a mythical king, "King Boreas," who declares a ten-day celebration. There are Ice sculptures, and sometimes ice palaces are built again. At the end of the festival, "Vulcanus Rex," the King of Fire, storms the castle, making King Boreas give up winter's hold until next year.
Tourism in Minnesota
Tourism has become a very important business in Minnesota, especially in the northern lakes region. What used to be an area for mining and logging is now a popular vacation spot. People love to visit for the environment, and for traditional activities like hunting and fishing.
Minnesota in Popular Culture
Minnesota often appears in TV shows and movies. For example, in Beverly Hills, 90210, the main characters Brandon and Brenda Walsh were from Minneapolis. Marshall Eriksen from How I Met Your Mother is a proud Minnesotan from St. Cloud. The show Big Time Rush features four hockey players from Minnesota.
Many Hollywood films are set in Minnesota's winters. The comedies Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men are set in Wabasha. The Coen Brothers' film Fargo and its TV series also take place in Minnesota winters, with characters often speaking with a strong "Minnesota accent."
Other movies like Juno and A Serious Man are also set or implied to be set in Minnesota. The famous children's book On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the TV series Little House on the Prairie are set in the small town of Walnut Grove.
The "Mighty Ducks" films are about a junior hockey team from Minnesota. In the first movie, the team famously skates through the Mall of America in Bloomington. The movie Miracle, about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, also has many scenes in Minnesota, as many players and the coach were from the state.
The Christmas movie Jingle All The Way, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, partly takes place at the Mall of America, which is a huge shopping center and a popular tourist spot.
Fandom and Conventions
The Minneapolis-Saint Paul area is also home to several groups for fans of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. These groups hold yearly events like Diversicon, CONvergence, and Minicon. These are large gatherings where authors, publishers, and scientists meet with fans to discuss their favorite topics.
Images for kids
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An 18-layer kransekake, a traditional Scandinavian cake.
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Marshall Sherman poses with a battle flag in 1864.
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