Online Encyclopedia
Midsummer
Midsummer is the period of time centered upon the summer solstice. In the old Germanic calendar, it was referred to as "Litha", a term still in use today but seemingly limited to modern Pagans (called "neopagans"). Midsummer-related holidays, traditions and celebrations, most of which are considered secular, are particularly important in Finland and Sweden, but found also in other parts of Northern Europe, Great Britain and elsewhere. Solstitial celebrations still center upon June 24, but the difference between the Julian calendar year (365.2500 days) and the tropical year (365.2422 days) moved the actual astronomical solstice forward several days between 45 BCE (when Julian calendar was established) and 325 CE (First Council of Nicaea). This movement forward continued, but Gregorian calendar turned the situation to that of the First Council of Nicaea.
In the 7th century, Saint Eligius (died 659/60) warned the recently-Christianized inhabitants of Flanders against these pagan solstitial celebrations. According to the Vita by his companion Ouen, he would say:
- "No Christian on the feast of Saint John or the solemnity of any other saint performs solestitia [summer solstice rites] or dancing or leaping or diabolical chants."
Indeed, as Saint Eligius demonstrates, Midsummer has been Christianized as the feast of Saint John the Baptist: unlike all other saints' days, this feast celebrated on his birthday and not on the day of his martyrdom, which is separately observed as the "Decollation of John the Baptist" on August 29. The day of Saint John the Baptist is not marked by Christian churches with the emphasis one might otherwise expect of such an important saint. Midsummer is also a Neopagan holiday.
The celebration of Midsummer's Eve was from ancient times linked to the summer solstice. People believed that at midsummer plants had miraculous and healing powers and they therefore picked them on this night. Bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southwards again. In later years, witches were also thought to be on their way to meetings with other evil powers.
The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since neolithic times. The concentration of the observance is not on the day as we reckon it, but the pre-Christian beginning of the day, which falls on the previous eve. Midsummer's Eve is in Sweden and Finland considered the greatest festival of the year, comparable only with Walpurgis Night, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve.
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Denmark
In Denmark the solstitial celebration is called Sankt Hans aften ("St. John's Eve"). It was an official holiday until 1770 and in accordance with the Danish tradition of celebrating a holiday on the evening before the actual day, it takes place on the evening of June 23. It is the day where the medieval wise men and women (the doctors of that time) would gather special herbs that they needed for the rest of the year to cure people.
It has been celebrated since the times of the Vikings and of Odin and Thor, by visiting healing water sources and making a large bonfire to ward away evil spirits. Today the water source tradition is gone. Bonfires on the beach, speeches, picnics and songs are traditional, although bonfires are built in many other places where beaches may not be close by (i.e. on the shores of lakes and other waterways, parks, etc.). In the 1920s a tradition of putting a witch made of straw and cloth on the bonfire emerged as a remembrance of the church's witchburnings from 1540 to 1693 (but unofficially a witch was lynched as late as 1897). This burning sends the witch to Bloksbjerg, the mountain 'Brocken' in the Harz region of Germany where the great witch gathering was thought to be held on this day.
Holger Drachmann and P.E. Lange-Müller wrote a beautiful midsommervise (Midsummer hymn) in 1885 called "Vi elsker vort land..." ("We Love Our Land") that is sung at every bonfire on this evening.
Norway
Like in Denmark, Sankthansaften is celebrated on 23 June. The day is also called Jonsok, which means "Johannes wake," important in Catholic times with pilgrimages to churches and holy springs. Right up to 1840 there was, for instance, a pilgrimage to the stave church in Røldal (southwest Norway) whose crucifix was said to have healing powers.
In parts of Norway a custom of arranging mock marriages, both between adults and between children, is still kept alive. The wedding was meant to symbolise the blossoming of new life. Such weddings are known to have taken place in the 1800s, but the custom is believed to be older.
In the last century Midsummer's Eve was largely celebrated in the local communities, but during the 1990s it has developed into a more private party with family and friends gathering round a bonfire to dance.
Sweden
In Sweden, Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day is moved to the third Friday and Saturday of June, in order to make a dependable long weekend. The main celebrations takes place on the Friday, the traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge (phallic) maypole. Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover, to "may", the entire pole.
Raising and dancing around a maypole is primarily an activity which attracts families, even though it traditionally is a fertility ritual. Dancing around the pole is often accompanied by traditional music and the wearing of traditional folk costumes . The year's first potatoes, pickled herring, sour cream, and possibly the first strawberries of the season are on the menu.
Young men and women, not yet responsible for any family, demonstrate their eagerness to get one by intense procreation, dancing and drinking (often in the reverse order).
Finland
Before 1316, the summer solstice was called Ukon juhla, after an old Finnish god Ukko. In Karelia, people had many bonfires side by side, the biggest of which was called Ukko-kokko (the "bonfire of Ukko"). Now in Finland the midsummer holiday (Juhannus — or midsommar for the Swedish-speaking minority), is a notable occasion for drunkenness and revels. As in Sweden, maypoles have been transferred to the midsummer festivities, and pickled herring is the hallmark of the coastal areas, where also the Finland-Swedish language and culture have their stronghold. In the rest of Finland, a bonfire (kokko) take the place of the maypole, and smoked fish from the nearby lake is eaten instead of pickled herring. But the differences end there.
Midsummer in Finland is celebrated at least as intensely as in Sweden. Many people get indecently drunk and happy. The statistics of the number of people drowned and killed in accidents is morbidly counted every year. Also statistics of assaults demonstrates a peak for this weekend.
- Midsummer in Finland http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/juhannus.html
- "Finnish Midsummer" http://www.uta.fi/~th63387/juhannus.html
Lithuania
At the beginning of the 20th century, solsticial bonfires were common all over Lithuania, but Soviet years have repressed such customs.
- Lithuanian folk customs connected with Midsummer http://www.lfcc.lt/publ/thelt/node20.html
Ireland
In the Irish calendar, Midsummer is one of the four Irish Quarter days that divide the official calendar, and the evening before (St. John's Eve) is called Bonfire Night.
Germany
On June 20th 1653 the Nuremberg town council issued the following order: :"Whereas experience heretofore hath shown, that after the old heathen use, on John's day in every year, in the country, as well in towns as villages, money and wood hath been gathered by young folk, and thereupon the so-called sonnenwendt or zimmet fire kindled, and thereat winebibbing, dancing about the said fire, leaping over the same, with burning of sundry herbs and flowers, and setting of brands from the said fire in the fields, and in many other ways all manner of superstitious work carried on---Therefore the Hon. Council of Nürnberg town neither can nor ought to forbear to do away with all such unbecoming superstition, paganism, and peril of fire on this coming day of St. John."
- "Need-fires" and other German custom explained http://www.northvegr.org/northern/book/religious014.php
United Kingdom
In Britain from the 13th century Midsummer was celebrated on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve, June 23) and St. Peter's Eve (June 28) with the lighting of bonfires, feasting and merrymaking. The tradition largely fell to the Reformation, but persisted in rural areas up until the nineteenth century before petering out. See also Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
June 24, Midsummer Day, the feast of St John the Baptist, is one of the quarter days in England.
USA
The NYC Swedish Midsummer celebrations in Battery Park, New York City, attracts some 3,000-5,000 people annually, which makes it one of the largest celebrations after the ones held in Leksand and at the Skansen Park in Stockholm.
It is also celebrated locally in Minnesota, which has a substantial Scandinavian element.
Neopaganism
Midsummer is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism. It is celebrated on the solstice or close to it.
The holiday is considered the turning point at which summer reaches its height and the sun shines longest, but at the same time it is said we are reminded that the days will soon begin to shorten.
Among the Neopagan sabbats, Midsummer is preceded by Beltane and followed by Lughnasadh or Lammas. See also Wheel of the Year.
See also
- Midsummer http://dmoz.org/Society/Holidays/Midsummer/ at the Open Directory Project
- The Stations of the Sun, Ronald Hutton, Oxford 1996