ST JOHN'S Day, the feast of St John the Baptist, or Midsummer's Day as it is sometimes called, occurs tomorrow, June 24th. In many cultures, however, it is today, the vigil of the feast, that is considered more significant because of the wealth of superstition that surrounds it much of it going back to pagan times. There is an ancient belief, for example, that on Midsummer's Eve, the soul wanders from the body and makes its way on a sort of preliminary visit to the eventual place of death.
In many parts of Ireland, bonfires were lit and, indeed, still are on St John's Eve. Traditionally, they were called "bonefires" and correctly so, since bones from oxen, sheep or pigs were often used as fuel. According to the authortative mediaeval manual Festyvall, published in 1515, "in the worship of St John the people made three manner of fires; one was of clean bones and no wood, and that is called a bone fire; another of clean wood and no bones and that is called a woodfire; and the third is made of wood and bones, and is called St John's Fire."
The whole exercise was very much concerned with wooing. It was customary for the young people to compete with each other in leaping over the bonfires to see who could jump the highest over the flames. The winner, it was believed, would be the first of those present to be married, and moreover, anyone who jumped clear over the bonfire three times was assured of a happy marriage and a lucky life. For those less ambitious or athletic, merely to walk three times around the bonfire was sufficient to keep disease at bay for a full year.
On St John's Eve, too, young maidens could discover the state of their lover's affections by observing the behaviour of a sprig of orpine, known colloquially as Midsummer Man - the plant was clamped vertically in clay, and the future of their romance depended on whether the plant leaned to the right or to the left. And if their affaires d'eoeur were rather less advanced, John Aubrey, the somewhat whimsical 17th century biographer of Shakespeare and Milton, had this advice - which, for all we know, may well be efficacious to this very day.
"At midnight on Midsummer Eve walk several times around a church, clockwise, scattering hempseed and saying:
Hempseed I sow, hempseed I
mow,
Let him that is my true love come after me and show
"Then look over your left shoulder and you will see the form of your destined lover following behind you.