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Midsummer

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A bonfire for Midsummer in Mäntsälä, Finland.

A bonfire for Midsummer in Mäntsälä, Finland.

The summer solstice, more commonly known as Midsummer, marked the longest day of the year and the zenith of magical power often called “white magic.” Magic worked on Midsummer was most often concerned with life and fertility. Jumping through the Midsummer bonfire was a way to attract fertility, good luck, and prosperity to both the jumper and the surrounding fields. The bonfires of Midsummer are traditionally kindled from the friction of two sacred woods, fir and oak. Nine different types of herbs are thrown upon the Midsummer fire: mistletoe, vervain, St. John’s Wort, heartsease, lavender, and a choice of four others chosen from herbs typical of this season such as yarrow. Folks would feast, dance and jump the fire for luck and fertility. The herds were driven through the embers in days long ago to purge disease and illness from them. When the fires had burned down, folks would carry ashes back to their homes to sprinkle on fields, the four corners, and lay embers on the hearth. The ashes bring powers of protection, health and luck.

Water is the other important aspect of Midsummer. In times past folks swam in waters that flowed towards the rising sun as it climbed in Midsummer morning sky. Bathing in springs and rivers on Midsummer brings healing, cleansing and protection. The dew of Midsummer is said to bestow health to whomever drinks of it. Especially powerful is fetching running water of Midsummer morn and mixing it with ashes from the bonfire, sprinkling it around the house, yard and on oneself bestows protection and luck. Iceland combined the beliefs about bathing and dew into one practice: Icelandic folklore says that if you bathe naked in the morning dew on the morning of June 24, you will keep aging at bay for longer.) Midsummer Eve, the night before the solstice, is the evening of herbs. The herbs and flowers gathered this night are considered exceptionally potent. St John’s Wort, burdock, thorn, and nettle , should be harvested on Midsummer Eve and hung on doors or windows and placed around the home for protection. Royal Fern seeds which are gathered at midsummer are said to make the possessor invisible. They who find Royal Fern blossoms on Midsummer’s eve become wise, lucky, and wealthy. Women wear braided circlets of clover and flowers, while men wear chaplets of oak leaves and flowers around their heads. In times past, livestock were also decorated with garlands made of flowers, foliage, and oak leaves.

St. John The Baptist @ Slavic Midsummer

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Girls in Belarus set wreaths and candles afloat as part of Kupala Night celebrations.

Girls in Belarus set wreaths and candles afloat as part of Kupala Night celebrations.

Ivan Kupala was the old Russian name for John the Baptist, whose Christian feast coincides with the ancient celebration of Midsummer. Up to the present day, the Russian Midsummer Night (or Ivan’s Day) is known as one of the most expressive Russian folk and pagan holidays.

Many rites of this holiday are connected with water, fertility and purification. The girls, for example, would float their flower garlands and candles on the water of rivers and tell their fortunes from their movement. Boys and girls alike would jump over the flames of bonfires. Nude bathing is likewise practiced.  A prominent Ivan Kupala night scene involving nude swimming is featured in Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev.

There is an ancient Kupala belief, that the eve of Ivan Kupala is the only time of the year when ferns bloom. Prosperity, luck, discernment and power would befall on whoever finds a fern flower. Therefore, on that night village folks would roam through the forests in search of magical herbs and especially the elusive fern flower. In Gogol’s story The Eve of Ivan Kupala, a young man finds the fabulous fern-flower but is cursed by it. Gogol’s tale may have been the stimulus for Modest Mussorgsky to compose his tone poem Night on Bald Mountain.

Traditionally, unmarried women, signified by their garlands on their hair, would be the first to enter the forests. They are followed by young men. Therefore, consequent to the quest in finding herbs and the fern flower may be the blooming of relationships between pairs of men and women within the forest.

In Serbia, Saint John (Sveti Jovan or also called Superman) is known by the name Igritelj (dancer) because it is thought the sun is dancing on this day. Girls will watch the sunrise through a wreath, to become as  red (i.e. beautiful, as “red” and “beautiful” share the same root in Slavic languages) as the sun. At dusk, Ivanjske vatre (St. John Fires) are lit, and dancing and singing and drinking take place.