In addition to the four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year,
there are four lesser holidays as well: the two solstices, and the two
equinoxes. In folklore, these are referred to as the four
'quarter-days' of the year, and modern Witches call them the four
'Lesser Sabbats', or the four 'Low Holidays'. The Summer Solstice is
one of them.
Technically, a solstice is an astronomical point and, due to the
procession to the equinox, the date may vary by a few days depending
on the year. The summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches the
Tropic of Cancer, and we experience the longest day and the shortest
night of the year. Astrologers know this as the date on which the sun
enters the sign of Cancer.
However, since most European peasants were not accomplished at
reading an ephemeris or did not live close enough to Salisbury Plain
to trot over to Stonehenge and sight down its main avenue, they
celebrated the event on a fixed calendar date, June 24th. The slight
forward displacement of the traditional date is the result of
many calendar changes down through the ages. It is
analogous to the winter solstice celebration, which is astronomically
on or about December 21st, but is celebrated on the traditional date
of December 25th, Yule, later adopted by the Christians.
Again, it must be remembered that the Celts reckoned their days
from sundown to sundown, so the June 24th festivities actually begin
on the previous sundown. This was Shakespeare's
Midsummer Night's Eve. Which brings up another point: our modern
calendars are quite misguided in suggesting that 'summer begins' on
the solstice. According to the old folk calendar, summer begins on
May Day and ends on Lammas (August 1st), with the summer solstice,
midway between the two, marking MID-summer. This makes more logical
sense than suggesting that summer begins on the day when the sun's
power begins to wane and the days grow shorter.
Although our Pagan ancestors probably preferred June 24th (and
indeed most European folk festivals today use this date), the
sensibility of modern Witches seems to prefer the actual solstice
point, beginning the celebration on its eve, or the sunset immediately
preceding the solstice point. Again, it gives modern Pagans a range
of dates to choose from with, hopefully, a weekend embedded in it.
Just as the Pagan mid-winter celebration of Yule was adopted by
Christians as Christmas, so too the Pagan mid-summer
celebration was adopted by them as the feast of John the Baptist. Occurring 180 degrees apart on the wheel of the year, the
mid-winter celebration commemorates the birth of Jesus, while the
mid-summer celebration commemorates the birth of John, the prophet who
was born six months before Jesus in order to announce his arrival.
Although modern Witches often refer to the holiday by the rather
generic name of Midsummer's Eve, it is more probable that our Pagan
ancestors of a few hundred years ago actually used the Christian name
for the holiday, St. John's Eve. This is evident from the wealth of
folklore that surrounds the summer solstice (that it is a night
especially sacred to the faerie folk) but which is inevitably ascribed
to 'St. John's Eve', with no mention of the sun's position. It could
also be argued that a Coven's claim to antiquity might be judged by
what name it gives the holidays. Incidentally, the name 'Litha' for
the holiday is a modern usage, possibly based on a Saxon word that
means the opposite of Yule. Still, there is little historical
justification for its use in this context. But weren't our Pagan
ancestors offended by the use of the name of a Christian saint for a
pre-Christian holiday?
Well, to begin with, their theological sensibilities may not have
been as finely honed as our own. But secondly and more importantly,
St. John himself was often seen as a rather Pagan figure. He was,
after all, called 'the Oak King'. His connection to the wilderness
was often emphasized by the rustic
nature of his shrines. Many statues show him as a horned figure. Christian iconographers mumble
embarrassed explanations about 'horns of light', while modern Pagans
giggle and happily refer to such statues as 'Pan the Baptist'. And to
clench matters, many depictions of John actually show him with the
lower torso of a satyr, cloven hooves and all! Obviously, this kind
of John the Baptist is more properly a Jack in the Green! Also
obvious is that behind the medieval conception of St. John lies a
distant, shadowy Pagan deity, perhaps the archetypal Wild Man of the
Wood, whose face stares down at us through the foliate masks that
adorn so much church architecture. Thus medieval Pagans may have had
fewer problems adapting than we might suppose.
In England, it was the ancient custom on St. John's Eve to light
large bonfires after sundown, which served the double purpose of
providing light to the revelers and warding off evil spirits. This
was known as 'setting the watch'. People often jumped through the
fires for good luck. In addition to these fires, the streets were
lined with lanterns, and people carried cressets (pivoted lanterns
atop poles) as they wandered from one bonfire to another. These
wandering, garland-bedecked bands were called a 'marching watch'.
Often they were attended by morris dancers, and traditional players
dressed as a unicorn, a dragon, and six hobby-horse riders. Just as
May Day was a time to renew the boundary on one's own property, so
Midsummer's Eve was a time to ward the boundary of the city.
Customs surrounding St. John's Eve are many and varied. At the
very least, most young folk plan to stay up throughout the whole of
this shortest night. Certain courageous souls might spend the night
keeping watch in the center of a circle of standing stones. To do so
would certainly result in either death, madness, or (hopefully) the
power of inspiration to become a great poet or bard. This was also the night when the serpents of the
island would roll themselves into a hissing, writhing ball in order to
engender the 'glain', also called the 'serpent's egg', 'snake stone',
or 'Druid's egg'. Anyone in possession of this hard glass bubble
would wield incredible magical powers. Even Merlyn himself
went in search of it, according to one
ancient Welsh story.
Snakes were not the only creatures active on Midsummer's Eve.
According to British faery lore, this night was second only to
Halloween for its importance to the wee folk, who especially enjoyed a
ridling on such a fine summer's night. In order to see them, you had
only to gather fern seed at the stroke of midnight and rub it onto
your eyelids. But be sure to carry a little bit of rue in your
pocket, or you might well be 'pixie-led'. Or, failing the rue, you
might simply turn your jacket inside-out, which should keep you from
harm's way. But if even this fails, you must seek out one of the 'ley
lines', the old straight tracks, and stay upon it to your destination.
This will keep you safe from any malevolent power, as will crossing a
stream of living (running) water.
Other customs included decking the house front with birch, fennel, St. John's wort, orpin, and white
lilies. Five plants were thought to have special magical properties
on this night: rue, roses, St. John's wort, vervain and trefoil.
Indeed, Midsummer's Eve in Spain is called the 'Night of the Verbena
(Vervain)'. St. John's wort was especially honored by young maidens
who picked it in the hopes of divining a future lover.
There are also many mythical associations with the summer
solstice, not the least of which concerns the seasonal life of the God
of the sun.
It was believed that the Sun-God meets his death at the summer solstice. However, there
is good reason to see the Sun-God at his zenith -- his peak of power
-- on this day, and that his death at the hands of his rival would not
occur for another quarter of a year. Material drawn from the Welsh
mythos seems to support this. In Irish mythology, Midsummer is
the occasion of the first battle between the Fir Bolgs and the Tuatha
De Danaan.
Altogether, Midsummer is a favorite holiday for many Witches in
that it is so hospitable to outdoor celebrations. The warm summer
night seems to invite it. And if the celebrants are not in fact
skyclad, then you may be fairly certain that the long ritual robes of
winter have yielded place to short, tunic-style apparel. As with the
longer gowns, tradition dictates that one should wear nothing
underneath -- the next best thing to skyclad, to be sure.
The two chief icons of the holiday are the spear (symbol of the
Sun-God in his glory) and the summer cauldron (symbol of the Goddess
in her bounty).
It is interesting to note that modern
Witches often use these same symbols in the Midsummer rituals. And
one occasionally hears the alternative consecration formula, 'As the
spear is to the male, so the cauldron is to the female...' With these
mythic associations, it is no wonder that Midsummer is such a joyous
and magical occasion!
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