Editing Midsummer (section)

== History ==
[[File:Midsummer-eve-bonfire-nikolai-astrup.jpg|thumb|250px|''Midsummer Eve Bonfire'' by Norwegian artist [[Nikolai Astrup]] (c.1915)]]
[[File:KastelholmMidsommarst.JPG|thumb|A [[maypole]] at Midsummer near the [[Kastelholm Castle]] in [[Sund, Åland|Sund]], [[Åland]]]]
[[File:DIMG 5456 (4735649602).jpg|thumb|Swedes celebrating Midsummer, [[Möja]] island in the [[Stockholm archipelago]]]]

There is [[Archaeoastronomy|evidence]] that the summer solstice has been culturally important since the [[Neolithic]] era, with [[List of archaeoastronomical sites by country|many ancient monuments]] throughout Eurasia and the Americas aligned with sunrise or sunset on the summer solstice.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Papadopoulos |editor1-first=Costas |editor2-last=Moyes |editor2-first=Holley |title=The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kelley |first1=David |last2=Milone |first2=Eugene |title=Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of Archaeoastronomy |date=2005 |publisher=[[Springer Publishing]]}}</ref>

The name 'midsummer' is attested in [[Old English]] as ''midsumor'', and refers to the time around the summer solstice. Astronomically, the solstice falls on 20, 21 or 22 June, but traditionally, in northern Europe, the solstice and midsummer was reckoned as the night of 23–24 June, with summer beginning on [[May Day]].<ref>{{OEtymD|midsummer|accessdate=2023-06-22}}</ref>

Likewise, in the [[Ancient Rome|ancient Roman world]], the traditional date of the summer solstice was 24 June,<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Neill |first1=William Matthew |title=Time and the Calendars |date=1976 |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=85}}</ref> and [[Marcus Terentius Varro]] wrote in the 1st century BC that Romans saw this as the middle of summer.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forsythe |first1=Gary |title=Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |pages=123, 182 |quote=Varro places the equinoxes and solstices at the midpoints of the seasons ... His dating for the beginnings of the four seasons are as follows: February 7 for spring, May 9 for summer, August 11 for autumn, and November 10 for winter.}}</ref> In the city of Rome, it was the festival of the goddess [[Fors Fortuna]]. People thronged the [[River Tiber]] and rowed in boats to the temples of Fortuna; "after undisclosed rituals they rowed back, garlanded and inebriated".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Billington |first1=Sandra |title=The Concept of the Goddess |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |page=134}}</ref>

[[Sandra Billington]] says there is no evidence that the pre-Christian [[Germanic peoples]] celebrated the summer solstice.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Billington |first=Sandra |date=2008 |title=The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed in Pagan Germany, Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30035459 |journal=Folklore |volume=119 |issue=1 |pages=41–57 |doi=10.1080/00155870701806167 |jstor=30035459 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The historian [[Ronald Hutton]] says that the "lighting of festive fires upon Saint John's Eve is first recorded as a popular custom by [[Jean Beleth]]us, a theologian at the University of Paris, in the early twelfth century", but is undoubtedly much older.<ref name="Hutton1996">{{cite book|last=Hutton|first=Ronald|title=The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|isbn=9780198205708|pages=[https://archive.org/details/stationsofsunhis0000hutt/page/312 312–313]|url=https://archive.org/details/stationsofsunhis0000hutt/page/312}}</ref> In England, the earliest reference to this custom occurs in the 13th century AD,<ref name="Hutton1996"/> in the ''Liber Memorandum'' of the [[Church of England parish church|parish church]] at Barnwell in the [[Nene Valley]], which stated that parish youth would gather on the day to light fires, sing songs and play games.<ref name="Hutton1996"/> A Christian monk of [[Lilleshall Abbey]], in the same century, wrote:<ref name="Hutton1996"/>

{{blockquote|In the worship of St John, men waken at even, and maken three manner of fires: one is clean bones and no wood, and is called a bonfire; another is of clean wood and no bones, and is called a wakefire, for men sitteth and wake by it; the third is made of bones and wood, and is called St John's Fire.<ref name="Hutton1996"/>}}

The 13th-century monk of [[Winchcomb]], Gloucestershire, who compiled a book of sermons for Christian feast days, recorded how St John's Eve was celebrated in his time:

<blockquote>Let us speak of the revels which are accustomed to be made on St. John's Eve, of which there are three kinds. On St. John's Eve in certain regions the boys collect bones and certain other rubbish, and burn them, and therefrom a smoke is produced on the air. They also make brands and go about the fields with the brands. Thirdly, the wheel which they roll. ... The wheel is rolled to signify that the sun then rises to the highest point of its circle and at once turns back<ref>[[British Library]] Harleian Mss 2345, edited by J. Kemble, ''The Saxons in England'', vol. I:361, quoted in [[George C. Homans]], ''English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century'', 2nd ed. 1991. pp. 369–370.</ref></blockquote>

Saint John's Fires, explained the monk of Winchcombe, were to drive away [[dragon]]s, which were abroad on St John's Eve, poisoning springs and wells. A Christian interpretation of midsummer fires is that they are "an emblem of St. John the Baptist, who was 'a burning and shining light,' and the preparer of the way of Christ."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Olio, Or, Museum of Entertainment, Volume 7|year=1831|publisher=Joseph Shackell|language=en|page=400|quote=Belithus tells us that it was a custom to carry lighted torches on Midsummer-eve, as an emblem of St. John the Baptist, who was 'a burning and shining light,' and the preparer of the way of Christ.}}</ref> The fires were also believed to repel [[Christian views on witchcraft|witches]] and [[unclean spirit|evil spirits]].<ref name="Dahlig2009">{{cite book|last=Dahlig|first=Piotr|title=Traditional Musical Cultures in Central-Eastern Europe: Ecclesiastical and Folk Transmission|year=2009|publisher=Dahlig|language=en |isbn=9788389101860|page=68|quote=The dangers posed to humans by demons require specific rituals, aimed at identifying witches and putting them to death. A key element of May Day or St John's rituals is the burning of witches or the repelling and burning-out with fire of evil forces, which might deviously conceal themselves among people, for instance in the form of animals.}}</ref>

On St John's Day in 1333, [[Petrarch]] watched women at [[Cologne]] rinsing their hands and arms in the [[Rhine]] "so that the threatening calamities of the coming year might be washed away by bathing in the river."<ref>Petrarch, ''Epistolae familiares'', Aachen,21 June 1333, noted by [[Simon Schama]], ''Landscape and Memory'' 1995:265.</ref>

In 1482, German Franciscan friar Paul Walther provided an early documentation of the [[Albanians|Albanian]] traditional practice of lighting fires ([[Zjarri (Albanian paganism)|zjarre]]) on Saint John's eve.<ref>{{cite book|last=Malcolm|first=Noel|title=Rebels, Believers, Survivors: Studies in the History of the Albanians|year=2020|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0192599223|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FXwDwAAQBAJ|page=20}}</ref>

In the 16th century AD, English historian [[John Stow]] described the celebration of Midsummer:<ref name="Hutton1996"/>

{{blockquote|the wealthier sort also before their doors near to the said bonfires would set out tables on the vigils furnished with sweet bread and good drink, and on the festival days with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they would invite their neighbours and passengers also to sit, and to be merry with them in great familiarity, praising God for his benefits bestowed on them. These were called bonfires as well of good amity amongst neighbours that, being before at controversy, were there by the labour of others reconciled, and made of bitter enemies, loving friends, as also for the birtue that a great fire hat to purge the infection of the air. On the vigil of St John Baptist and St Peter and Paul the Apostles, every man's door being shadowed with green birch, long fennel, St John's Wort, Orpin, white lillies and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers, had also lamps of glass, with oil burinin in them all night, some hung branches of iron curiously wrought, containing hundreds of lamps lit at once, which made goodly show.<ref name="Hutton1996"/>}}

Saint John's Day is also a popular day for [[infant baptism]]s and in the 19th century, "baptisms of children who had died 'pagans' were acted out".<ref name="Reis2003">{{cite book|last=Reis|first=João José|title=Death Is a Festival: Funeral Rites and Rebellion in Nineteenth-Century Brazil|url=https://archive.org/details/deathisfestivalf00reis|url-access=limited|date=20 November 2003|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|language=en |isbn=9780807862728|page=[https://archive.org/details/deathisfestivalf00reis/page/n115 101]|quote=Like 8 December, the eve of St. John's Day was a highly popular date for nineteenth-century christenings. According to old midwives, the baptisms of children who had died 'pagans' were acted out: 'On this day, at nightfall, a candle is lit in the praise of St. John. The woman who stands godmother prays the Credo before the candle for little angel and says: "I baptize you, So-and-So, I baptize you in the name of Almighty God the Father"....If [the child] is not baptized, it will cry in its grave every night.'}}</ref> In Sweden, young people visited [[Holy well|holy springs]] as "a reminder of how John the Baptist baptised Christ in the River Jordan."<ref name="SwedenSE2018">{{cite web|url=https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/midsummer/|title=Midsummer|date=10 January 2018|publisher=Government of Sweden|language=en|access-date=25 March 2018|quote=In Sweden, they were mainly found in the southern part of the country. Young people also liked to visit holy springs, where they drank the healing water and amused themselves with games and dancing. These visits were a reminder of how John the Baptist baptised Christ in the River Jordan.}}</ref>