Guestling Bradshaw CE Primary School

For thousands of years this day was important to our ancestors, and many stone circles and other ancient monuments are aligned to the sunrise at the summer solstice. Probably the most famous alignment is that at Stonehenge, where the sun rises over the heel stone, framed by the giant trilithons.

The reason that Midsummer is now often celebrated on 24th June, even though the longest day falls on the 20th or 21st, is thought to be variation between the Julian and Gregorian calendars: the summer solstice woud have occurred on June 24th in Roman times.

In ancient times (and even well into the 18th century in some areas) midsummer fires were lit in high places all over the countryside. It was a time when domestic animals like cattle were blessed with fire, usually by walking them around the fire in a sun-wise direction. It was also customary for people to jump high through the fires; according to folklore, the height reached by the most athletic jumper would be the height of that year’s harvest.

After Christianity became adopted in Britain, the festival became known as St John's day and was still celebrated as an important day in the church calendar: the nativity of John the Baptist. As he was six months older than Jesus, this day was marked as his birthday.

Traditionally St John's Eve (like the eve of many festivals) was seen as a time when the veil between this world and the next was thin, and when powerful forces were abroad. Vigils were often held during the night and it was said that if you spent a night at a sacred site during Midsummer Eve, you would gain the powers of a bard; alternatively you could also end up utterly mad, dead, or be spirited away by the fairies!

Indeed St John’s Eve was a time when fairies were thought to be abroad and at their most powerful (hence Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream). St John's Wort was also traditionally gathered on this day, thought to be imbued with the power of the sun. It is widely used as a herbal treatment for depression. Other special flowers (vervain, trefoil, rue and roses) were also thought to be most potent at this time, and were traditionally placed under a pillow in the hope of important dreams. A rose picked on Midsummer's Eve was said to last until Christmas.

The festival is still important to many people, including modern day druids who celebrate the summer solstice at Stonehenge in Wiltshire. It has now become a popular festival, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year.