What is Midsummer Day? Why is it celebrated on the Feast of St. John, the day after Midsummer Eve?

Swedes and numerous northern people groups celebrate a solstice holiday known as Midsummer Day. This Swedish public holiday (Midsommardagen) is celebrated every year on the Saturday falling between June 20th – 26th. The actual date of Midsummer’s day and the Summer Solstice might fluctuate between June 20th and 21st.

Midsummer is celebrated on June 24 and a day’s intended as far as we’re concerned to see the value in every one of the gifts that nature gives us. The late summer solstice denotes the longest day of the year and that lands on June 20, but since the old Julian calendar marked it in an unexpected way, the date for Midsummer Day remains June 24. The holiday begins in Sweden, yet it’s celebrated all around the world and many utilize the end of the week nearest to the date for traditional festivals.

Midsummer is one of the most established and significant holidays in Sweden. Festivities start on Friday previously – Midsummer’s Eve (Midsommarafton).

What is Midsummer?

Swedes and numerous northern people groups celebrate a solstice holiday known as Midsummer Day. It’s an old day that many individuals actually appreciate on the grounds that late summer calls for a celebration! In mid-June, school is out and nature has burst into life. It seems like the Sun won’t ever set. As a matter of fact, in the north of Sweden, it doesn’t, and in the south, just for a little while.

Midsummer began as a pagan ritual for fertility and a successful harvest during the Stone Age. The pagans accepted that plants had healing properties throughout the late summer solstice and they honored the day by showing adoration to nature with rituals. They moved around maypoles, fashioned garnets, and herbs were picked out on Midsummer’s Eve and bonfires were utilized to fend off any malicious spirits. It was said that spirits were allowed to wander the earth when the sun was turning towards the southern side of the hemisphere.

By and large, this day denotes the midpoint of the developing season, somewhere between planting and harvest. It is traditionally known as one of four “Quarter Days” in certain cultures.

The prior night Midsummer Day is called Midsummer Eve (June 23) which is on or close to the most limited evening of the year! Celebrations for Midsummer regularly start on Midsummer’s Eve. Dancing, feasting, bonfires, and general merrymaking are hallmarks of the night!

In the fourth century, the holiday was changed to squeeze into Christian convictions that honored St. John the Baptist called St. John’s Day. In the Gospel of Luke, Saint John’s birthday is supposed to be a half year before the birth of Jesus, which would place his birthday in June. It was celebrated by washing in water the prior night for purification, a feast, and prayer on the holiday, yet in spite of the name change, a portion of the customs from Midsummer remained.

In the Middle Ages, Germany had its own Midsummer ceremonies which would ultimately be taken on by Sweden and others. Germanic neopagans called their summer solstice festival Litha. In their ceremonies, the Maypole was adorned with leaves and raised on May 1, which is where the name comes from. It was elusive green leaves during that time, and the holiday was moved to Midsummer.

Today, it’s as yet a celebrated holiday and it’s unbelievably famous. In Sweden, it comes simply second to Christmas and individuals travel from everywhere over the world to encounter it themselves. During the hour of the Summer Solstice, occupants of the British Isles and Scandinavia have almost an entire day of daylight, making it simple for them to envision how the Pagans once lived and reenact the traditions of old.

How to celebrate Midsummer Day?

Sweden’s cities become abandoned during The Midsummer weekend. Many individuals start their yearly five-week vacation around Midsummer Day and go to the open country.

Many people start the day by winding around crowns of flowers to wear. Individuals likewise make wreaths of flowers to decorate a maypole. Individuals have been dancing around maypoles on Midsummer Day since the 16th century. People’s Folk dances and ring dances around the maypole are essential for the Midsummer Day festivities.

Singing is likewise essential for a traditional Midsummer Day feast. Individuals sing while they drink cold beer and spiced schnapps.

Midsummer is viewed as a heartfelt season, and numerous weddings happen. Young girls pick flowers returning from Midsummer celebrations and put the flowers under their cushions to check whether their future husbands will show up in their fantasies.

Many individuals end their Midsummer Day festivities by halting at an outside dance returning. Others take midnight swims.

Midsummer’s Day Traditions

Like New Year, the principal celebrations happen just before the day. Traditional events incorporate raising and dancing around a huge maypole, in Swedish called the Midsommarstången.

Some accept it began as a symbol of fertility. Despite the fact that the significant fertility ceremonies in old times, based on the start of spring, Midsummer was connected to an old fertility festival, as traditionally right now would prompt a birth in March, which was customarily viewed as a great time for kids to be conceived.

Others think the shape of the pole has its underlying foundations in Norse mythology, and that it addresses a hub connecting the hidden world, earth, and heavens. Many individuals will wear traditional folk outfits and pay attention to conventional music.

It is likewise a holiday on which the Swedish will polish off a lot of alcohol and raucous drinking songs are a typical sound during the celebrations.

Midsummer was viewed as one of the vital times in the year when the force of wizardry was most grounded and at it was believed to be a great chance to perform customs, especially those which connected with foreseeing what’s to come. A custom of this is one in which youngsters pick bouquets of seven or nine distinct flowers and put them under their pad in the expectation of dreaming about their future mate.

Flowers are likewise used to dress up the maypole. One reason these celebrations occur in late June, as opposed to on May 1st in different countries that have comparative festivals like Germany, Ireland, and the UK, is that in Sweden it’s more challenging to track down flowers and vegetation prior to spring.

Feast Day of St. John

In Christianity, Midsummer Day is related to the Nativity of John the Baptist, which is seen around the same day, June 24th, in the Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protestant churches.

Eventually, Christian church authorities assigned June 24 as the birthday of St. John the Baptist, who anticipated the birth of Christ (which would happen 6 months later in the fact in the calendar, during the darkest days) and later baptized Jesus in the Jordan River.

Celebrations with bonfires, bathing in water, and watching the sunrise were traditional. Along these lines, the period took on both secular and religious symbolism, giving everybody motivation to celebrate.