Why let the calendar get in the way of a good pagan tradition? Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB as I stand like a colossus, with one foot on the summer solstice and the other on St. John.
June 21 may be the first day of summer, but the Swedes don’t celebrate Midsummer’s Eve until Friday, the eve of St. John the Baptist’s feast day. That’s the night the demon Chernobog emerges from the Bald Mountain, Puck pours love juice in everyone’s eyes, and inebriated folk leap naked over bonfires. The Swedes don’t really seem to care when it’s observed, as long as there’s plenty of drink, dancing, food, flowers and flame.
Midsummer’s Eve, of course, is tied to the summer solstice and marked by free-flowing vodka, prognostications of the identities future lovers, fertility rituals, and the wider celebration of nature. The Swedes observe Midsummer by wearing wreaths, carousing around the maypole, and eating strawberry cake. The day is a national holiday. Skål!
Sweden is not the only country to celebrate Midsummer, of course. There will be raucous celebrations in Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada (Quebec), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Half the world will be sleeping it off on Saturday.
Bottom joins his rude mechanicals in listening in with ass’s ears, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’ll all be dreaming of Midsummer, on Classic Ross Amico.
