Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
While midsummer day is celebrated throughout Europe, many Lithuanians have a particularly lively agenda on this day. The traditions include singing songs and dancing until the sun sets, telling tales, searching to find the magic fern blossom at midnight, jumping over bonfires, greeting the rising midsummer sun and washing the face with a ...
The Midsummer maypole tradition dates from the Middle Ages, while the summer solstice celebration can be traced to Norse pagan times, when the culture revolved around the mystical natural world.
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of European origin.
Festa de São João do Porto (Portuguese for 'Festival of St John of Porto') is a festival during Midsummer, on the night of 23 June (Saint John's Eve), in the city of Porto, in the north of Portugal, as thousands of people come to the city centre and more traditional neighborhoods to pay a tribute to Saint John the Baptist, in a party that mixes sacred and profane traditions.
As in the past, some Christians still refer to the day as St. John's eve to minimize the influence of previous pagan beliefs and rituals and emphasize their Christian cultural and spiritual beliefs, same with jaanipäev that contains lighting the bonfires and jumping over them, eating, drinking, singing and dancing all through the night ...
Conventional Polish celebrations of midsummer are a mix of pagan and Christian influences. [44] In Poland the festival is known as 'noc świętojańska' (Christian) or 'Noc Kupały' (Kupala Night) and 'sobótka' (pagan). Traditional folk rituals include groups of young men and women singing ritual songs to each other.
The celebrations were supported by the Catholic Church and were primarily religious around that time. The lighting of bonfires, a traditional custom on the Nativity of Saint John which ultimately reached back to pre-Christian Midsummer celebrations were still lit at night. [14] In addition, the first Saint-Jean-Baptiste parades were organized.
In the modern pagan movement of Heathenry there are a number of holidays celebrated by different groups and individuals. The most widely observed are based on ancient Germanic practices described in historical accounts or folk practices; however, some adherents also incorporate innovations from the 20th and 21st centuries.