What better time for a celebration than the end of June? For most CLFers, school is out, the days are warm and a feeling of freedom and anticipation is in the air. This year, kick-off your summer with a time-honored tradition: celebrate Midsummers or St. John's Day, on June 24. This special day is widely celebrated in Europe and South America today, just as it has been for centuries, with a unique blend of pagan and Christian traditions. Read about how Midsummers and St. John's Day is celebrated around the world. Then choose from among the ideas on page to design a celebration for your family and friends.

St. John's Day & Midsummer Day
Midsummer's Eve gets its name from the Celtic Pagan calendar which places the beginning of summer on May 1 and the end of summer on August 1, reasoning that the day when the sun is most powerful (the Summer Solstice) is actually the mid-point of summer. Just as the Pagan celebration of Yule (at the Winter Solstice) was adopted by Christians as the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Pagan mid-summer celebration was adopted by Christians as the day to celebrate the birth of John of the Baptist, the son of Mary's cousin Elizabeth born six months before Jesus, who prophesied the coming of Jesus and prepared the way baptizing people in the River Jordan.

The blend of Christian and Pagan traditions which are seen in Midsummers' celebrations is remarkably reciprocal, with many pagan references to "St. John's Eve" and many Christian celebrations marked by pagan symbols (fire and water) and superstition. It is interesting to note that St. John himself is often depicted as a rather Pagan figure-his connection to the wilderness has been emphasized (some called him 'the Oak King'), and many statues show him as a horned figure, like the Pagan deity Pan. This blending continues in Midsummer celebrations around the world today.

Scandinavia
In the far north the longest day of the year (twenty to twenty-four hours of sunlight as compared to zero to six mid-winter) is a joyous occasion! In Finland the day is called Juhannus Day and is conveniently fixed on a Saturday so that everyone can spend it in the country. On Midsummer's Eve the celebration begins with a sauna, followed by the midnight lighting of great bonfires on lake and sea shores and outdoor dancing through the night. The birch tree takes the place of the Christmas evergreen; great branches are cut and used to decorate cars, homes, and churches. Superstitions abound, such as you must have a birch tree in the house to insure future happiness, and you should hang a birch wreath to your cow's horns for protection. Hundreds of fires can be seen on the highest promontories throughout Finland and Norway with shadow-like figures dancing around them. Boats decorated with flowers and green branches float down fjords, giving passengers a good view of the lighted hilltops.

In Sweden, where the festival is called Midsommar, houses are decorated inside and out with posies, wreaths and flower garlands. A midsummer pole, similar to the maypole is erected in a field and decorated with leafy branches and flowers. People of all ages gather around the pole to dance, led by fiddlers playing classic old tunes and children's favorites. In Sweden, as in many other countries, the magic of Midsummer includes divining the future, especially one's future spouse. The young girl who goes out into the fields, and (in silence) picks seven different kinds of flowers and places them under her pillow that night, will dream who her husband will be.

Latin Countries
Fortune telling and firewalking are hallmarks of the Fiesta de San Juan in Paraguay and other Latin countries. Rituals carried out by young women on the eve of San Juan's Day include: place a cross of laurel leaves under the pillow to bring dreams of a future sweetheart, plant corn and beans on the eve of the Saint's day to forecast whether a girl will marry a foreigner (if the corn grows first) or a Paraguayan (if the bean grows), throw a shoe over the house- if it lands upside down, the thrower will not marry within the year, and tell fortunes from forms taken when candle wax is dropped in a pan of water. In Brazil unmarried girls write the names of the boyfriends on pieces of paper. Tossing them aside one by one, the last remaining piece of paper is supposed to have the name of the girl's future husband.

In Spain (and Latin American countries such as Paraguay) the bonfires of Midsummer end with several people walking across the hot coals from one side of the fire to the other. In Spain they say their faith in the Virgin of La Pena would not let them be burnt; in fact rarely is anyone hurt by this dangerous ritual.

In Peru the Incan festival of the Sun God, at the time of South America's winter solstice, coincides with the Feast Day of St. John. Bonfires are lit, symbolizing the rebirth of the sun on this day, and old clothes are burnt, a sign of the end of poverty and the end of that harvest cycle.

In France St. Jean's Day is also celebrated with bonfires, dancing and leaping over the fires (a pagan tradition to bring good fortune). As in Scandinavia and elsewhere, houses are decorated with plants thought to have special magical powers on this day: rue, roses, St. Johnswort and verbena. Branches of these plants are burned in the fires and ashes saved to protect houses from lighting, or used in garden's to promote growth. So strong is the association of plants with this festival that the eve of Midsummer's Day in Spain is called the 'Night of the Verbena'

Design Your Celebration
Midsummers calls for a bonfire if possible. As noted above a bonfire by a lake or seashore would be appropriate, as would a fire on a hilltop if you don't live near water. (Be sure to get all necessary permissions from your local fire department and take precautions such as digging a shallow pit, lining it with stones and having a hose or water supply on hand.) A barbecue could substitute (or accompany) a bonfire. If you do build a bonfire, be sure to include lots of singing and dancing into the night.

Pagans associated water with Midsummers as well as fire, perhaps because of the opposition of fire and water, perhaps to emphasize the importance of water during this season when the sun is strongest. Include water sports in your celebration: swimming if possible, running through the sprinkler, or having a water fight. Sun-colored water balloons would provide fun symbolism..

Indoors and out decorate with birch branches, flower garlands (be sure to use verbena or St. Johnswort if available), floating candles (on a birdbath or basin), and sun images made of paper or clay. Young girls in your family or group might try divining as the Scandinavian girls do. In silence have each go out to the woods or fields and gather five different kinds of flowers. Each girl places the bouquet under her pillow that night with hopes to dream of her future spouse.

Food for the celebration should be summery and colorful. Fire up your barbecue and enjoy your favorite grilled food (spicy and hot is best) with watermelon, golden corn and red tomatoes. Here are two responsive readings by UU minister (from Singing the Living Tradition) to accompany your celebration.
Summer Meditation
Now blows the wind with soft, relaxing warmth.
The sun beats down.
The schools are out.
Children swarm in the playgrounds and the streets, and eager city folk, vacation-bound crowd the broad highways.
The lakes and seashores lose their solitude
And all the world seems turned to carnival.
What of ourselves? There could be, now, deep peace, a time for soul-searching.
We might turn to examine our own lives, to sort and probe our tendencies of thought,
To sift the true from false in the things of doubt,
The beautiful from ugliness unmarked.
The sun beats down; it is a time for pause.
Even the trees seem resting for a time as if to meditate and gather strength for the more strenuous times that lie ahead.
And shall not we? Here's the unfinished clay, half-moulded, that still waits on us
To think what we have been, and are, and still yet have to become.
Robert T. Weston
(adapted)

Summer Warmth
We stand at the edge of summer.
The sun has at last warmed us enough that we begin to trust in its presence.
The last burst of spring blossoms, lavender and white and deep pink banks of rhododendron, are giving way to summer peonies and roses.
O source of the turning seasons,
Of earth, of life, of promise gradually becoming fulfillment,
May your people find a lightening of the burdens with the brightening of the sky.
Helen Cohen

References:
MacDonald, Margaret Read, Ed. The Folklore of World Holidays. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1992.
Polon, Linda & Cantwell, Aileen. The Whole Earth Holiday Book. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foesman & Co., 1983.
Serith, Ceisiwr. The Pagan Family, Handing the Old Ways Down. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1994.
Nichols, Mike. The Eight Sabbats of Witchcraft. Found on the Worldwide Web.

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Last updated May 24, 2002 by clf@uua.org