Vintage Style Midsummer Sun With Floral Garden Violet Blooms on Robin Egg Blue pattern - available at Patternbank
Midsummer (24th June) and the Summer Solstice (21st June) has been a time of great celebration throughout history; associated with bonfires, dancing, merry making and love divination in many parts of the British Isles.
The days between Midsummer Eve and the Summer Solstice have been sacred to people for hundreds, if not thousands of years. In Celtic times, huge bonfires were lit to honour and celebrate the sun and its life giving effect on crops, livestock and the continued health and prosperity of those who lived in harmony with the land.
The night of Midsummer Eve on the 23rd June is also known as of St John’s Eve, being the day before the feast of St John the Baptist. The fires lit as part of these summer festivals known as ‘bonfires’ take their name from the word ‘boon’ meaning ‘good, in recognition of the healing, magical and prophetic energies that these fires were believed to bestow upon the people.
Traditionally the Midsummer festival in British Folklore would see people’s doors bedecked with green birch, St John’s Wort (a flower sacred to the sun god), white lilies and fennel combined with garlands of flowers including daisies, and presented with oil burning lamps. People would form processions and march in great pageantry with drummers, military and musicians through the city streets, or rural villages to the celebratory community bonfires.
Some folklorists have reported that midsummer bonfires were considered to be so purifying and potent that once the flames had begun to die down, people would leap over the fire, or pass animals, crops or people through the smoke.
Midsummer Day was considered to be particularly powerful for divination especially in relation to love and marriage. There are many different Midsummer love spells and rituals that can be performed according to local custom, with a selection of them shown below.
Midsummer Love divination
The following British Folklore divination, charms and rituals have been re-written in a modern context for anyone interested in folk magic for spells or research.
Midsummer Rose
Several versions of this ritual exist, with most of the details below noted in 1833:
On Midsummer Day, walk backwards into the garden and whilst blindfolded, pluck a rose in full bloom whilst the clock is chiming twelve
Fold the rose up in a sheet of white paper and keep the rose hidden until Christmas Day
If the rose has remained fresh, wear the rose at which point the person to which you will be married will come to you, and take the rose away
A Somerset Midsummer Eve Ritual
During the night of Midsummer’s Eve go to a churchyard and wait for the clock to strike twelve with rose leaves and a herb such as Rosemary in the hand
At the first stroke of midnight, run around the church scattering the leaves and sing softly:
‘Rose leaves, rose leaves. Rose leaves I strew. They that will love me, come after me now’
St John’s Wort & The Midsummer Men
Gather the herbs St John’s Wort, trefoil and some sprigs of rue
Set them in clay, on piece of slate in the house (known as the Midsummer men)
If the herbs die away by morning it foretells that this union will not be, if they remain fresh, a positive outcome can be expected
Vintage Midsummer Suns on Sky Blue With Orange Poppies pattern - available on Patternbank
MIDSUMMER FOLKLORE PATTERN - COLLECTION INSPIRATION
As an art licensing artist, I am inspired to bring folklore themes and stories into my patterns for art licensing that often have a vintage pattern feel due to the process of hand illustration in pencil followed by digital colouring.
In this collection I have two hero patterns, both featuring solar anthropomorphic sun motifs inspired by art of the medieval period that became widespread during the Renaissance. My Vintage Style Midsummer Sun With Floral Garden Violet Blooms on Robin Egg Blue pattern is inspired by the folklore of Midsummer rose magic, and the Vintage Midsummer Suns on Sky Blue With Orange Poppies pattern references the summer flowers including daisies that would bedeck the doors of homes during the Midsummer festival. Both patterns are available to buy in my Patternbank store, and are available for both personal and commercial art licensing to create apparel, homeware, maximalist interiors, gift and stationary.
