Midsummer's Day - June 24th

Midsummer's Day - June 24th

Not many people realize that June 24th has the epithet Midsummer day.  This name has nothing to do with the solstice, or the middle of summer, but it has everything to do with quarter-days.

The others quarter-days are: Lady Day on 25th March, Michaelmas on 29th September, and famously, Christmas on 25th December.

The other connotation for Midsummer day is Shakespeare's Midsummer night's dream.  Shakespeare builds on superstitions that this was a time of the year when fairies were abroad.

Midsummer's eve is also known as St John's eve, particularly in Ireland.   The St John is none other than St John the Baptist, hence he was born on Midsummer's day, June 24th.  Incidentally, this a good to to collect the St John's Wort plant.   Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere places like Australia celebrate this day with a warming bonfire.

One custom of the first Millennium was 'Handfasting'.  The idea was that couples who had announced their engagement on May day would enter into a trial marriage on June 24th.  This handfasting would last for a year and a day and if all went they would then marry.

Midsummer's Day Story

The Happiest Days of the Year = June 20th -24th

Cliff Arnall has derived a mathematical formula which proves that mid-June is the happiest day time of the year.   His result is due to a combination of lighter evenings, memories of childhood summers and the prospect of holidays, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Cliff, who is a psychologist and former tutor at Cardiff University, worked out the equation:

"O + (N xS) + Cpm/T + He".

O stands for being outdoors, N is nature, S is socialising with neighbours and friends, Cpm stands for childhood positive memories, T is the mean temperature, and 'He' is holiday expectation.

However this year (2008), his formula fails to take into account falling house prices, rising inflation, stagnating pay rises or the fact that none of the United Kingdom teams are in Euro 2008.

Midsummer Is A Magical Time

Funny Superstitions, Bizarre Ideas, and Customs Connected with Midsummer

Will and Guy have read that almost all magic is more powerful at Midsummer
Midsummer dew has special healing powers.

• Young ladies wash their faces in it to make themselves beautiful; older people do the same to make themselves look younger. If you walk barefoot in the dew on Midsummer Day's morning, it will stop the skin from getting chapped. If you can bring yourself to skip naked through the dew in the night, then it, supposedly, will ensure fertility for the coming year.
• Shakespeare's Comedy - A Midsummer Night's Dream
  Nick Bottom (Weaver) wears a donkey's head.
• Herbs, especially St. John's Wort, gathered on Midsummer's Day and burnt on bonfires will keep livestock healthy and banish bad luck.
• If on Midsummer's Eve, you approach a fern leaf backwards, without looking, and, without touching the leaf, collect the seed then they have to power to make you invisible.
• The festival is still important to pagans today, including the modern day Druids who celebrate the solstice at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. For many, the light of the sun on Midsummer's Day, is sacred.
• Mistletoe was and is, highly revered by the Druids. It is regarded as particularly potent when it grows on oak. Although it is more commonly associated with Yule and the Winter Solstice, it was often gathered ceremonially at Midsummer when it is regarded as being at the height of its powers.
• It was an old belief, in England, that one of the best times to see fairies is between twilight and midnight on Midsummer's Day.

Midsummer's Day Jokes

How to get to the midsummer bonfire

A townie was looking for the Midsummer bonfire, he stopped and asked Tyler.  'Will this road take me to the Midsummer day bonfire?'  'Oh no,' said Tyler.  'You'll have to go by yourself!'

See more special events, days of celebration:

● Up-Helly-Aa   ● Groundhog Day   ● Candlemas   ● Cherry blossom day   ● Earth Day   ● Grand National

● May Day   ● Midsummer's Day   ● Festival Days   ● Lady Day   ● Next Friday 13th

● 4th of July   ● Pamplona Bulls   ● Bastille Day   ● Labor Day   ● Home

● Tomatina Spain   ● Blackberry day   ● Trafalgar Day   ● Remembrance Day