Midsummer, also known as St John’s Day, or Litha, is the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, and more specifically the Northern European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice or take place on a day between June 19 and June 25 and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different cultures. The Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr St John the Baptist, and the observance of St John’s Day begins the evening before, known as St John’s Eve.

European midsummer-related holidays, traditions, and celebrations are pre-Christian in origin. They are particularly important in geographic Northern Europe – Sweden, Denmark,Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – but is also very strongly observed in Poland, Russia, Belarus, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, parts of the United Kingdom (Cornwall especially), France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, other parts of Europe, and elsewhere – such as Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, and also in the Southern Hemisphere (mostly in Brazil, Argentina and Australia), where this imported European celebration would be more appropriately called “Midwinter”.

Midsummer is also sometimes referred to by Neopagans and others as Litha, stemming from Bede’s De temporum ratione which provides Anglo-Saxon names for the months roughly corresponding to June and July as se Ærra Liþa and se Æfterra Liþa (the “early Litha month” and the “later Litha month”) with an intercalary month of Liþa appearing afterse Æfterra Liþa on leap years. The fire festival or Lith- Summer solstice is a tradition for many pagans.

Solstice celebrations still centered on the day of the astronomical summer solstice. Some choose to hold the rite on June 21, even when this is not the longest day of the year, and some celebrate June 24, the day of the solstice in Roman times.

Although Midsummer is originally a pagan holiday, in Christianity it is associated with the nativity of John the Baptist, which is observed on the same day, June 24, in the Catholic,Orthodox and some Protestant churches. It is six months before Christmas because Luke 1:26 and Luke 1.36 imply that John the Baptist was born six months earlier than Jesus, although the Bible does not say at which time of the year this happened.^[4]

In Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Quebec (Canada), the traditional Midsummer day, June 24, is a public holiday. So it was formerly also in Sweden and Finland, but in these countries it was, in the 1950s, moved to the Friday and Saturday between June 19 and June 26, respectively.^[5]

In Wicca, practitioners celebrate on the longest day and shortest night of the year which has not had a set date since the retirement of the 13-month Celtic calendar.

The celebration of Midsummer’s Eve (St. John’s Eve among Christians) was from ancient times a festival of the summer solstice. Bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southward again. In later years, witches were also thought to be on their way to meetings with other powerful beings.

The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since Neolithic times. In Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia, Midsummer’s Eve is the greatest festival of the year, comparable only with Walpurgis Night, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve.

Ancient Romans would hold a festival to honor the god Summanus on June 20.

In the 7th century, Saint Eligius warned the recently converted inhabitants of Flanders against the age-old pagan solstice celebrations. According to the Vita by his companion Ouen, he’d say: “No Christian on the feast of Saint John or the solemnity of any other saint performs solestitia [summer solstice rites] or dancing or leaping or diabolical chants.”

As Christianity entered pagan areas, midsummer celebrations came to be often borrowed and transferred into new Christian holidays, often resulting in celebrations that mixed Christian traditions with traditions derived from pagan Midsummer festivities. The 13th-century monk of Winchcomb, Gloucestershire, who compiled a book of sermons for the feast days, recorded how St. John’s Eve was celebrated in his time:

Let us speak of the revels which are accustomed to be made on St. John’s Eve, of which there are three kinds. On St. John’s Eve in certain regions the boys collect bones and certain other rubbish, and burn them, and therefrom a smoke is produced on the air. They also make brands and go about the fields with the brands. Thirdly, the wheel which they roll.

The fires, explained the monk of Winchcombe, were to drive away dragons, which were abroad on St. John’s Eve, poisoning springs and wells. The wheel that was rolled downhill he gave its explicitly solstitial explanation: “The wheel is rolled to signify that the sun then rises to the highest point of its circle and at once turns back; thence it comes that the wheel is rolled.”

On St John’s Day 1333 Petrarch watched women at Cologne rinsing their hands and arms in the Rhine “so that the threatening calamities of the coming year might be washed away by bathing in the river.”

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Animal: Cattle, Crab, Goldfinch, Horse, Kingfisher, Meadowlark, Octopus, Owl, Robin, Wren

Colors: Blue, Gold, Green, Orange, Purple, Red, Yellow

Days: June 20-22 depending on year

Elements: Fire

Goddesses: Amaterasu, Phoebe

Gods: Apollo, Balder, the Dagda, the Green Man, Helios, Jupiter, Loki, Lugh, Mithras, Ra, Surya, Thor, Zeus

Minerals: Diamond, Emerald, Jade, Lapis Lazuli, Tiger’s Eye

Ogham: Ur

Planets: Sun

Plants: Chamomile, Galangal, Heather, Heliotrope, Lavender, Mistletoe, Saffron, St. John’s Wort, Vervain

Seasons: Summer

Trees: Beech, Elder, Holly, Laurel, Linden, Oak

Zodiac: Cancer

Issues, Intentions, & Powers: Agriculture, Change/s, Divination, Endings, Fertility, Life, Light, Love, Manifestation, Marriage, Power, Purpose, Strength, Success, Unity

Some activities to celebrate Litha:

– Watch the sun rise and set

– Blessings for fathers

– Create a wicker man

– Take a walk and collect various things from nature to decorate your home/altar

– Create herbal smudge bundles

– Have a picnic at a local park

– Create a dream pillow of lavender and rosemary

– Alfrún