Midsummer's Eve among the pagans (Midsummer's Eve, Saint John's Eve)

Midsummer Night is a folk Christian celebration glorifying the summer solstice This holiday with obligatory cleansing rituals is widespread not only among the Slavs: it is celebrated in many European countries It falls on the night of June 23-24 Sometimes it is called Ivan Kupala in honor of John the Baptist (Burner, Forerunner), because on this day Christians celebrate the Nativity of John Some chroniclers believed that Kupala was a pagan god However, scientists have proven that this opinion is wrong In the era of dual faith, elements of pagan and Christian rituals combined, forming a bizarre form of celebration The Church opposes demonic games and festivities on this holiday The Slavic people sincerely love Midsummer night, considering it a night of youth, fun and unity with nature Before the holiday, before sunset, it was necessary to perform a ritual bath in a bathhouse or river That night there was a ban on sleep for everyone, otherwise they could bring disaster on themselves and their relatives Closer to sunset, fires were lit on high ground, and the fire was produced by friction Young people brought armfuls of firewood and brushwood The higher the flame of the fire, the better it was A pole was placed in the center of the largest fire, and on it was a wheel, symbolizing the sun Singles chose their betrothed, jumped through the flames with them, holding hands It’s not for nothing that in the fall, after Kupala, weddings were often held Celebrants set fire to wheels and barrels and lowered them from the hills; this action was a symbol of the solstice The girls decorated the Kupala tree with ribbons and wreaths, and the boys comically interfered with them Then together they drowned him in water or threw him into a fire Sometimes they burned a straw effigy of Yarila and Kupala Mass bathing was also obligatory, because it was on this night that the water washed away everything bad There was no need to be afraid of mermaids: according to legend, they leave their shelters from this day on Girls told fortunes about women's fates using wreaths with candles or splinters inserted into the water Young people were hooligans: they stole carts from neighbors, stole horses, and blocked roads In some areas, they poured dirty water on everyone they met so that they would quickly bathe; it was impossible to be offended by this There is an interesting custom of public ridicule, when neighbors who had stumbled were ridiculed in front of all the people But more often this kind of roll call was organized between boys and girls from two neighboring villages On Ivan Kupala, mothers prayed to St John for the health and success of their children Those suffering from headaches could ask him for healing by washing their faces with morning dew With the help of various rituals, peasants tried to find out about the future harvest: whether it would be rich or not People went to cemeteries and offered specially cooked porridge and the first berries to the deceased: cherries or strawberries Some tried to collect dew, which has life-giving power They also collected healing Ivanovo herbs while reading incantations Particularly fearless people searched at night for a fern flower, which, according to legend, blooms only once a year It is for this reason that the day is sometimes called Ivan the Travnik