Guest Author - Elizabeth Bissette

Midsummer festivals traditionally took place around the Solstice, most often on June 24. This night was celebrated by Christians as the birthday of St. John the Baptist, belived to have been born 6 months before Jesus.

The Solstice has been important since Neolithic times. Bonfires, dancing, chanting, healing and sacrifice are all associated with it. Many ceremonies were performed to ward off evil spirits, who were believed to roam about the most in the Summer. Celebrations began at night and continued until dawn.

There are many different Midsummer traditions, ancient and contempoarary. They center on three main things. First, the importance of plants, particularly as relates to health, youth and beauty; next the protective qualities of fire, that it can ward off evil and, lastly, the purifying and mystical effects of water.

Marriage and sex were also celebrated at this time and mock ceremonies were often held. The ritual of the Maypole is associated with these. Rain dances or acts of thanksgiving for rain were sometimes also part of the celebrations.

Bonfires are the most common characteristic of ancient and modern Midsummer festivals throughout the world. In many, participants leap over the fires. Jumping over the fire was believed to bring good luck and ensure prosperity. Fireworks are also often part of the celebrations. Fire is/was believed to ward off evil. To not light them was believed to invite destruction. The bigger the fire, the further away evil would stay. A dummy representing a witch or the Devil is often placed atop the fires, suggesting older traditions of human sacrifice.

Three types of fires were described in the 13th Century: "...in worship of St John the Baptist, men stay up at night and make three kinds of fires: one is of clean bones and no wood and is called a "bonnefyre" [bonfire]; another is of clean wood and no bones, and is called a wakefyre, because men stay awake by it all night; and the third is made of both bones and wood and is called, "St. John's fire" These traditions ended for the most part after the Reformation.

Another common characteristic of Midsummer rituals is associated with healing. Midsummer's Eve, or the night before it, has long been a traditional time for gathering medicinal herbs. Vikings and Druids visited sacred healing wells at Midsummer. Herbs collected at this time vary but most commonly include fennel, different species of ferns, rue, rosemary, dog rose, lemon verbena, St John's wort, mallows, laburnum, foxgloves and elder flowers.

It is also believed to be a powerful time for folk magic. Love and fertility spells and spells that work for the future are believed to be particularly strong if performed at this time of year. Many traditions say that the herbs above can attract love, health and beauty when dipped in water collected from 7 different springs. Sometimes water is left outside to collect dew and then used as a face wash the next morning for the same results.

Leaves and flowers were commonly worn by men and women and also burned in the fires. Flowers were/are also often floated on rivers and lakes. In some traditions, fortunes were told from the patterns they made as they floated. Bathing naked is another tradition associated with water and Midsummer.

Music is strongly associated with Midsummer rituals as well. Ringing bells and sounding conch shells were commonplace activities in ancient times. Their function, as with the fires, (often set in high places), to ward off evil spirits.

...Many European folklore traditions say that on Midsummer's Eve the fairies dance at midnight...