Midsummer
The celebration of the Summer solstice is a very ancient practice,
dating back to pre-Christian times. Midsummer was originally a fertility
festival with many customs and rituals associated with nature and with the
hope for a good harvest the coming fall/autumn.
Scandinavia
In Sweden, where the festival is called "Midsommar", houses are decorated
inside and out with wreaths and flower garlands. Swedes then dance around
the decorated midsummer pole while listening to traditional folk songs
known to all. In Sweden, as in many other countries, the magic of
Midsummer includes bonfires, and divining the future, especially one's
future spouse! Midsummer Eve is believed to be a night of mystery and
magic. On their way home from festivities, girls and young women are to
pick seven different species of flowers and lay them under their pillows.
At night, their future husbands will appear to them in a dream.
In Norway and Denmark, Midsummer's Eve is also a popular day, celebrated
with large bonfires. Among Danes, this event is known as Sankt Hans aften,
or St. John's Eve, and is celebrated on the eve of June 23rd. Danes sing
on this day the traditional Vi elsker vort land, "We Love Our Land", and
burn a witch made of straw on the bonfire as a remembrance of the Church's
witchburnings of the 16th and 17th centuries. In Norway, Midsummer's Eve
is also called "Jonsok".
The Scandinavian customs date back to pagan times when tribute was paid to
the powers of the sun god with bonfires signifying the defeat of darkness.
The Norwegians also form processions early in the evening, usually led by
a musician.
In Finland before 1316, the summer solstice was called Ukon juhla, after
an old god Ukko. In Karelia, people had many bonfires side by side, the
biggest of which was called Ukko-kokko (the "bonfire of Ukko"). At present
the midsummer holiday is known as Juhannus, or midsommar for the
Swedish-speaking minority, and is the year's most notable occasion for
drunkenness and revels.
Most of Finland burns bonfires (kokko) at lakesides and eat smoked fish
from the same lakes. In the coastal areas that are the stronghold of the
Finland-Swedish, these are supplanted by a maypole tradition transferred
from Sweden and pickled herring.
When Finland was Christianized, the holiday was named after John the
Baptist (Johannes) in order to give a Christian meaning for the pagan
holiday. The traditions, however, remained quite unchanged and survive in
modern-day Finland although they have lost their original purposes. In
folk magic, still well known but no longer seriously practiced, midsummer
was a very potent night and the time for many small rituals, mostly for
young maidens seeking suitors.
Midsummer in Finland is celebrated at least as intensely as in Sweden. A
great many people get indecently drunk and happy. The statistics of the
number of people drowned and killed in accidents are morbidly counted
every year while the number of assaults also peaks.
Estonia
"Jaanipäev" ("John's Day" in English) was celebrated long before the
arrival of Christianity in Estonia, although the day was given its name by
the crusaders. The arrival of Christianity, however, did not end pagan
beliefs and fertility rituals surrounding this holiday. Midsummer marks a
change in the farming year, specifically the break between the completion
of spring sowing and the hard work of summer hay-making. Understandably,
some of the rituals of Jaanipäev have very strong folkloric roots. The
best-known Jaanik, or midsummer, ritual is the lighting of the bonfire and
the jumping over it. This is seen as a way of guaranteeing prosperity and
avoiding bad luck. Likewise, to not light the fire is to invite the
destruction of your house by fire. The fire also frightened away
mischievous spirits who avoided it at all costs, thus ensuring a good
harvest. So, the bigger the fire, the further the mischievous spirits
stayed away. On the islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, old fishing boats may
be burnt in the large pyres set ablaze. On Jaaniõhtu, Estonians all around
the country will gather with their families, or at larger events to
celebrate this important day with singing and dancing, as Estonians have
done for centuries. The celebrations that accompany Jaaniõhtu are the
largest and most important of the year, and the traditions are similar
those of Sweden, Finland and the southern neighbour Latvia.
Russia
Ivan Kupala Day is the day of summer solstice celebrated in Russia and
Ukraine on June 23 or July 6. This is a pagan fertility rite, which has
been accepted into the Orthodox Christian calendar. Many rites of this
holiday are connected with water, fertility and autopurification. The
girls, for example, would float their flower garlands on the water of
rivers and tell their fortunes from their movement. Young men and girls
jump over the flames of bonfires.
Britain
The festival is primarily a Celtic fire festival, representing the middle
of summer, and the shortening of the days on their gradual march to
winter. Midsummer is traditionally celebrated on either the 23rd or 24th
of June, although the longest day actually falls on the 21st of June. The
importance of the day to our ancestors can be traced back many thousands
of years, and many stone circles and other ancient monuments are aligned
to the sunrise on Midsummer's Day. Probably the most famous alignment is
that at Stonehenge, where the sun rises over the heel stone, framed by the
giant trilithons on Midsummer morning. A trilithon (or trilith) is a
structure consisting of two large vertical stones (posts) supporting a
third stone set horizontally across the top (lintel).
In antiquity midsummer fires were lit in high places all over the
countryside, and in some areas of Scotland Midsummer fires were still
being lit well into the 18th century. This was especially true in rural
areas, where the weight of reformation thinking had not been thoroughly
assimilated. It was a time when the domestic beasts of the land were
blessed with fire, generally by walking them around the fire in a sun-wise
direction. It was also customary for people to jump high through the
fires, folklore suggesting that the height reached by the most athletic
jumper, would be the height of that years harvest.
After Christianity became adopted in Britain, the festival became known as
St John's day and was still celebrated as an important day in the church
calendar; the birthday of St John the Baptist. Traditionally St John's Eve
(like the eve of many festivals) was seen as a time when the veil between
this world and the next was thin, and when powerful forces were abroad.
Vigils were often held during the night and it was said that if you spent
a night at a sacred site during Midsummer Eve, you would gain the powers
of a bard, on the down side you could also end up utterly mad, dead, or be
spirited away by the fairies.
Indeed St Johns Eve was a time when fairies were thought to be abroad and
at their most powerful (hence Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream).
St John's Wort was also traditionally gathered on this day, thought to be
imbued with the power of the sun. Other special flowers (Vervain, trefoil,
rue and roses) were also thought to be most potent at this time, and were
traditionally placed under a pillow in the hope of important dreams,
especially dreams about future lovers.
Spain
Midsummer tradition is especially strong in northern areas of the country,
such as Galicia, where one can easily identify the rituals that reveal the
pagan beliefs widespread throughout Europe in Neolithic times. These
beliefs pivot on three basic ideas: the importance of medicinal plants,
especially in relation to health, youth and beauty; the protective
character of fire to ward men off evil spirits and witches and, finally,
the purifying, miraculous effects of water. Medicinal plants:
Traditionally, women collect several species of plants on St. John's eve.
These vary from area to area, but mostly include fennel, different species
of fern, rue, rosemary, dog rose, lemon verbena, St. John’s wort ,
mallows, laburnum, foxgloves and elder flowers. In some areas, these are
arranged in a bunch and hung in doorways. In most others, they are dipped
in a vessel with water and left outside exposed to the dew of night until
the following morning (o dia de San Xoan -St. John's day), when people use
the resulting flower water to wash their faces.
Water: Tradition holds it that the medicinal plants mentioned above are
most effective when dipped in water collected from seven different
springs. Also, on some beaches, it was traditional for women who wanted to
be fertile to bathe in the sea until they were washed by 9 waves.
Fire: Bonfires are lit, usually around midnight both on beaches and
inland, so much so that one usually cannot tell the smoke from the mist
common in this Atlantic corner of Iberia at this time of the year, and it
smells burnt everywhere. Occasionally, a dummy is placed at the top,
representing a witch or the devil. All gather around them and feast mostly
on pilchards (small sardine-like fish), potatoes boiled in their skins and
bread. When it is relatively safe to jump over the bonfire, it is done
three times (although it could also be nine or any odd number) for good
luck at the cry of “meigas fora” (witches off!). It is also common to
drink “Queimada”, a beverage resulting from setting alight Galician brandy
mixed with sugar, coffee beans and pieces of fruit, which is prepared
while chanting an incantation against evil spirits.