Although the Summer Solstice (Midsomer/ Midsummer) and the Feast of St. John are usually listed as two distinct holidays, there is little distinction between the way these two holidays are celebrated today or indeed back in Medieval Europe. Like many pre-Christian holy days, the latter is simply a thinly disguised reinventing of the former. Today, most Christians acknowledge the purpose of the liturgical festivals is not to celebrate the exact historical date upon which the events occurred, but rather to commemorate them in an interconnected way. In the 7th century, however, Saint Eligius even went so far as to warn against the customary Pagan Midsummer activities while encouraging new converts to instead celebrate St. John the Baptist’s birth.
In Medieval Europe, the Summer Solstice, or Midsummer, was celebrated between June 19 and June 25. Like most Medieval festivities, much of the revelry took place on the preceding evening. Today, exact dates vary across cultures but do continue under different names and guises around the world. One reason the celebratory date of Midsummer varies widely is because in Medieval Europe the solstice took place closer to mid-June due to the drifting of the Julian calendar. With the Gregorian calendar reformation in October of 1582, the Summer Solstice returned to its natural date (June 20/ 21st) when the path of the Sun in the sky is farthest north.
The Christian feast day celebrating the birth of John the Baptist, alternately known as the Nativity of John the Baptist, occurs annually on the fixed date of June 24th. As for why St. John’s Day falls on June 24th rather than June 25, when the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:26–37, 56-57) clearly states that John was born “six months before Jesus”, is also due to the pesky Julian calendar. This is because the Julian calendar used the Roman way of reckoning days by counting backwards from Kalends (first day) of the next month. In the Julian calendar, Christmas falls on the eighth day before the Kalends of January thus, Saint John’s Day was added to the calendar on the eighth day before the Kalends of July is June 24th.
Customarily, a saint’s liturgical feast day is celebrated as the day of that saint’s death. However, there are two notable exceptions: the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that of John the Baptist. Colloquially it is simply called Johnmas or (in German) Johannistag, which translates as John’s Day.
Many traditions have continued through the centuries with both Midsummer’s Eve and Saint John’s Eve celebrated across Europe with the lighting of bonfires, revelry through the night, Morris Dancers, and general merry making. In many cultures it is believed that herbs plucked during the night’s celebrations were given additional powers of healing. In Germany they call these herbs Johanneskraut (St. John’s herbs), though they are not to be confused with the actual plant now called St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum). People would bring these harvested cuttings to church for a special blessing before adorning their homes. Doing so was believed to not only protect the family from the evil eye, but also to banish witches, promote good fortune, and even to protect the house from fire.
The Joyful Feast of St. John
Then doth the joyful feast of St. John the Baptist take his turne,
When bonfires great with loftie flame, in every towne doe burne;
And yong men round with maides, doe daunce in every streete,
With garlands wrought of Motherwort, or else with Vervain sweete,
And many other flowre faire, with Violets in their handes,
Whereas they all do fondly thinke, that whosoever standes,
And thorow the flowres beholds the flame, his eyes shall feele no paine.
When thus till night they daunced have, they through the fire amaine
With striving mindes doe runne, and all their hearbes they cast therein,
And then, with wordes devout and prayers, they solemnly begin,
Desiring God that all their illies may there consumed bee
Whereby they thinke through all that yeare from Augues to be free …
Thomas Naogeorgus /Kirchmeyer – 16th century
Fire of Bones
The word bonfire comes to us from Late Middle English as a combination of the words bone + fire. The term originally denoted a large open-air fire on which bones were burnt as part of a ritual or celebration, but also as a fire for burning heretics.
Modernly defined as “a large open-air fire used as part of a celebration or as a signal.” A bonfire is much bigger than a campfire and is still typically built for celebrations or large outdoor events. While a bonfire is still a controlled fire, its overall size makes a bonfire more hazardous than the simple campfire.
A Fourteenth Century monk of Lilleshall, in Shropshire, wrote:
In the worship of St John, men waken at even, and maken three manner of fires: one is clean bones and no wood, and is called a bonfire; another is of clean wood and no bones, and is called a wakefire, for men sitteth and wake by it; the third is made of bones and wood, and is called St John’s Fire. [1]
A century later, roughly the same information was recorded thusly:
But in worshipp of seinte iohan the people woke at home & made iij maner of fyres. On was clene bones & no wode & that is callid a bone fyre. A nothir is clene wode & no bones & that is callid a wode fyre fore people to sitte & to wake there by.
—John Mirk, Liber Festivalis, 1486 [2]
The word balefire has become synonymous with the word bonfire. It comes to us from the Old English bǣlfȳr and the Middle English bale-fyre. Traditionally, however, a balefire differed from a bonfire in that it was a great fire which may or may not have traditionally been made using bales of straw. Like bonfires, balefires are also used for rituals and celebrations, most notably as funeral or sacrificial pyres. The word pyre comes to us from the Latin pyra (“pyre, funeral pile”), from Ancient Greek πυρά (purá), from πῦρ (pûr, “fire”).
[1] Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press. pp. 312–313. ISBN 9780198205708.
https://archive.org/details/stationsofsunhis0000hutt/page/332
[2] ________ https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Additional Sources:
Fr. Weiser. “Feasts of Saint John the Baptist”. Catholic Culture: Liturgical Year. Catholic Culture. Retrieved 2020-05-08
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1125
Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198205708. Retrieved 2020-05-08
https://archive.org/details/stationsofsunhis0000hutt/page/332
The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Cloisters Museum and Gardens, The Medieval Garden Enclosed: Midsomer Magick
http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/2009/06/23/midsomer-magick/
Hobbs, Christopher Ph.D. https://www.christopherhobbs.com/library/articles-on-herbs-and-health/st-johns-wort-ancient-herbal-protector/
The Popish Kingdom or Reigne of Antichrist written in Latin Verse by Thos. Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnaby Googe, 1570
https://books.google.com/books?id=cGMIAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage#v=onepage&q&f=false
Dancing Moon Farmstead and Emerickeskepe 