Editing Midsummer (section)

=== Ukraine ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2024}}
{{main|Kupala Night}}
[[File:Ivankupala.jpg|thumb|''Night on the Eve of Ivan Kupala'', by [[Henryk Siemiradzki]] ({{circa}} 1880)]]
[[Ivan Kupala Day|Ivan Kupala]] was the old Kyiv Rus' name for John the Baptist. Up to the present day, the Rus' Midsummer Night (or Ivan's Day) is known as one of the most expressive Kyiv Rus' folk and pagan holidays. Ivan Kupala Day is the day of summer solstice celebrated in [[Ukraine]] on 23 June NS and 6 July OS. Before the day was named for St John, this was a celebration of a pagan fertility rite involving bathing in water. Since St John the Baptist's birth is celebrated at this time, some elements of Kupala's pagan origins were seen to be roughly synonymous with Christian meanings, most notably the parallel of Baptism as cleansing from sins, so the holiday in a Christian-modified form has been accepted into the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]] calendar.