TODAY is Midsummer Eve but I would imagine that any celebrations for that day and Friday, Midsummer’s Day, will be carried forward to the weekend.

This is a modern trend for which there may be several reasons – for example people often have the weekend off work, they will spend more money at weekends and there is no requirement (in many cases) to get up early next morning.

In the not-too distant past, however, celebrations of this kind were held on the actual date of the reason for the celebration which gave such events much more purpose and charisma.

On this particular occasion, the timing is slightly misleading in some ways – as the first full day of summer arrived this year on June 21 with Midsummer Day on June 24, it suggests our summer is only eight days long. In reality, the first day of autumn is three months away.

Now in the Northern Hemisphere, our seasons’ dates are determined by the precise timing of the solstice, so this year the first full day of summer arrives on its well-recognised date of June 21 – it may differ slightly in other years.

Harking to Pre-Reformation times, Midsummer Eve was the time to prepare for the celebrations of the Birth of John the Baptist on the following day, June 24.

That was the real cause for celebration and bonfires were prepared in readiness for lighting at the stroke of midnight. It was a strange mixture of beliefs – Catholicism and Paganism, the idea being to drive away evil.

The use of bonfires to drive away evil spirits had long been used by our Pagan ancestors and as the influence of the Church increased in this country, the use of bonfires continued and spread, albeit now with Christian messages and symbolism. In this particular case, the Church was helped because the Pagan Emperor Julian, a supporter of the ideas of King Herod, ordered the bones of John the Baptist to be destroyed by fire. Thus the blazing fires honoured a saint and not the sun.

The embers of the mighty fires lasted beyond dawn and into the following day, June 24 which is celebrated both as Midsummer Day and the Birth of St John the Baptist.

Cattle were driven though the dying embers to cure them of diseases. Young men chased girls through the embers in the pretence of rescuing them from the flames, but over the last century or so, these celebrations have discontinued.

The Puritans did their best to stop these celebrations, especially the dancing and pageantry. Now, Guy Fawkes remains one of the few characters who are remembered by flames!

Various types of Hypericum (St John’s Wort) flourished and blossomed at this time of midsummer. Some were used for decoration of the home but in the times of belief in witches, some were thought to preserve the house and its occupants from witchcraft. The plants were arranged around doorways to prevent entry by witches and in some cases, they were placed beneath the pillows to ward off the activities of ghosts.

Here in Yorkshire, Midsummer’s Eve had other names – it was Need Fire Night, Mugwort Digging Night and St John’s Eve.

I have already explained the connections with St John the Baptist, but Need Fire Night arose when fire was a precious commodity. Flames were carried around the houses by volunteers to ensure the home fires continued to burn. St John’s Wort was also collected and placed around the home to ward off evil.

Mugwort Digging Night was when young people dug beneath the roots of the mugwort plant to seek magic coal that would protect them against lightning, plague and burning.

On the feast day of St John the Baptist, the folk of Yorkshire believed that “If you cut your thistles before St John, you’d then have two instead of one.”

Another verse ran as follows: Cut thistles in May, they grow in a day; Cut thistles in June, that is too soon.

Cut thistles in July, and then they’ll die.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Midsummer Eve and Day, under their guise of St John the Baptist’s Eve and Day, offers a few words of advice, including some about the forthcoming weather. This wisdom comes not only from England and Yorkshire, but further afield.

A note from Germany advises us that before St John’s Day, no early crops are worth praising while what might be advice with a Yorkshire flavour, says, “Before St John’s Day, we pray for rain – afterwards, we get it anyway.”

Rain on St John’s Day generally forecasts a wet harvest while rain on that day also causes damage to hazel nuts. And finally from the famous Shepherd’s Kalendar, “If St John’s be a little rainy, the hazel and walnut will be scarce and corn smitten in many places.”