when it starts on the first day of summer?
Wouldn’t midsummer be more like August than June?
Midsummer is June 24th. It’s a pagan thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer
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The name ‘midsummer’ is attested in Old English as midsumor, and refers to the time around the summer solstice.
“Mid” in Old English can mean “in the middle of”, but it moreso means “in the presence of” or “together with”. So the arrival of summer is referred to as “in the presence of summer”, thus “midsummer”, if that makes sense OP.
It’s also why the winter solstice is sometimes referred to as “midwinter” even though it is also around the start of winter.
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Because the summer solstice is the date when the Earth’s axis is most directly aligned with the sun (giving the longest daylight of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.) Summer used to be counted from the Vernal Equinox to the Autumn Equinox with Summer Solstice being the mid-point. Same with winter. Days increase in daylight hours until the Summer Solstice (Midsummer) at which time they decrease until Winter Solstice.
Leave it to the pagans to call the start of summer midsummer. Universe brain group.
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Indeed! Here in Sweden is Midsummer festive almost as big as Christmas! Days are super long and nights short! And from 21 June does the nights get longer and longer and darker!
It is quite unique to sit and observe the sun at night time imo!
Furthermore: we celebrate Midsummer so our furniture don’t unscrew themselves (IKEA humor)!
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It’s because then there were two seasons. Summer and Winter. There was no fall nor spring. So it use to be midsummer or midsommar. It’s now the first official day of summer for Pagans.
Okay, but what about the the 9 sacrifices and dressing some up in a bear carcass come into it?
Purely for children’s entertainment!
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Alright kids now gather around while with the help of a “volunteer” I demonstrate how you make a “Blood Eagle”.
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do the people of sweden know how to work the ikea black magic
if so share the secrets
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Players have forgotten what the meaning behind Midsummer Festival. They lost touch with the old traditions of stuffing somebody in a gutted out bear, and then burning them alive in a ready-to-assemble shoddily made hut.
I think the Romans put and end to that barbarism.
That was purely made up for the movie Midsommar and was specific to the cult in it. It has no relation to Pagan traditions.
The biggest Pagan tradition around Midsummer is dancing around a bonfire and that’s about it.
Must’ve been after they found Christianity, since they originally had their own human sacrifices.
What are the chances that a Druid would claim that these claims are false. I think you just trying to cover up what is really happening at these “festivals”.
In terms of climate, yes. But in terms of things that are easier to tabulate, no. It’s better to base your calendar on fixed events like equinoxes and solstices than things that require interpretation.
Case in point: the old, pre-Julian Roman calendar, which required constant fiddling, was subject to political manipulation, and was broken beyond repair by the time of Caesar’s calendar reforms of 46 BCE.
So we have Midsummer before Summer gets its full hot on. Big deal. I’ll take that over a broken, janky calendar that can’t be trusted.
They can’t openly celebrate a USA-only holiday.
Midsummer is actually nothing to do with seasonal label identification, but the growing progress that occurs midway in the first harvest. It’s celebrated because you’re picking fresh crops and getting ready to plant more. For example, early crops planted in April, like strawberries, radishes, barley, peas and beans have seen their flowering and are about ready for picking. Once you harvest them, you replant so that you get another yield. You also burn old stores of any of last winter’s grains that might be spoiled to make room for the new batch you have to dry/store. Hence the fire part of the festival.
Longer growing crops like corn, squash, carrots, watermelon, fruit trees/apples are in the middle of their growth cycle and will be yeilding their bounty July through August. This harvest is usally celebrated on Lughnasadh, or August 1st.
The final harvest is celebrated Samhain, or Halloween, and usually consists of your pumpkins, late fruiting apple trees, a second harvest of corn, wheat and barley.
The nine sacrifices are an allusion to the nine sacred woods. A branch of each of the sacred trees was gathered if possible to make the fire that would burn the old grain stores. Except Elder. That one was often replaced or left out because it could be toxic when burned. It was often replaced with one of the nine sacred herbs.
Bears at least in Northern cultures were symbolic in some cults because of how Ursa Major transgresses through the sky through the summer season. It was the most often used constellation to mark passage of time.
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