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Can you name a holiday when dark spirits are believed to be present and where magic and mysticism are embraced? It’s not Halloween, it’s Midsummer. In the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year occurs around June 21, when the sun’s rays shine directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23°30′ North latitude.
This day is known as the summer solstice and has been commemorated worldwide for centuries.
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream captured the whimsical mischief of the fairy realm on this magical night. Even today, folklore holds a significant place, and sacred traditions are still honored by various groups to mark the arrival of summer.
Step into the fascinating world of Midsummer.
10. Sankthansaften
Sankthansaften is the Danish midsummer celebration named after Sankt Hans—St. John the Baptist, whose birthdate falls on June 24. Like Christmas Eve, this holiday is observed the night before, on June 23, coinciding with the summer solstice—though the exact date may shift due to variations in the calendar each year.
Midsummer is ushered in with bonfires crowned by a witch effigy called 'heksedukke,' a cloth figure stuffed with fireworks. According to tradition, when the witch doll explodes, it signifies her release, allowing her to soar to Mount Brocken in Germany—a legendary meeting point for witches worldwide. The bonfire tradition dates back to the Middle Ages when suspected witches were burned at the stake throughout Europe. The addition of the witch doll began in the 1920s.
The bonfires are lit around 10 pm, and revelers sing the traditional anthem 'Midsommervisen' to celebrate the longest day of the year. In some parts of Denmark, the sun shines for up to 18 hours.
9. Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a sacred ritual of suffering and self-sacrifice performed by certain Native American tribes. The ceremony begins during the full moon closest to midsummer, when the sun reaches its zenith in the sky and the sage plant—a symbol of healing—is ready for harvest.
Tribes from the Great Plains, including the Lakota, Cree, and Blackfoot, dedicate the entire year to preparing for this significant ritual.
The Sun Dance is centered around themes of healing and renewal, as dancers express gratitude to the sun by offering their own flesh in a ritual known as 'piercing.' This intense procedure involves inserting wooden skewers beneath the skin of a dancer’s chest or shoulder blade. Rawhide cords are then attached to the skewers, which are connected to a central Sun Pole. The men dance around the pole for hours, resisting until their flesh tears.
The tribes hold that without the Sun Dance, the Earth would lose its vital connection to the cosmos.
Western settlers’ discomfort with the Sun Dance led to its prohibition by the American government around 1895, although some tribes continued the tradition in secret. In 1978, President Carter signed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, guaranteeing legal protection for all Native American spiritual practices.
8. Ivana-Kupala
In the heart of Eastern Europe, where winters are long and unforgiving, midsummer is marked by a celebration known as Ivana-Kupala. Originally a pagan fertility festival dedicated to the summer sun 'Kupalo,' it later merged with the feast of St. John, also known as 'Ivan.'
Water and fertility are central to the festivities—Kupala morning dew is believed to have healing powers, and people immerse themselves in outdoor waters to cleanse both body and spirit. No one sleeps on Kupala night, as it is believed that witches and vampires roam in the dark, prompting the lighting of bonfires to ward them off. Young men demonstrate their courage by jumping over the flames, while couples leap over bonfires together to prove the strength of their bond.
According to legend, a magical fern appears in the forest on Kupala night, and whoever finds it first will be granted good fortune.
7. Da Simmer Dim
Shetland is a secluded group of islands located between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, 230 kilometers (143 miles) north of Scotland. Positioned at 60 degrees North, the islands experience about 19 hours of daylight during midsummer. On the longest day of the year, the sun rises at around 4 am and sets at 10:30 pm.
Da simmer dim is an ancient Shetland term for the twilight hours, when the sun dips just below the horizon for a few hours, casting a soft, milky white light across the sky. As the sun rises again, the light shifts, bathing the landscape in an orange hue.
Shetland lies closer to Norway than to mainland Scotland, and during midsummer, early Norse settlers celebrated Baldur, the god of light. Islanders honored the day by constructing bonfires made from fish bones, straw, and seaweed, ignited with fish oil.
Young couples would follow an ancient Shetland custom of secretly meeting as the sun set. They would pick a stalk of ribwort plantain, a wild plant found on the islands. After removing the buds, they would hide them, and if new buds appeared, it was believed to be a sign that the couple was fated to marry.
Since 1982, bikers from all over the world have traveled by ferry to the remote islands to celebrate midsummer at the Simmer Dim bike rally. Around 400 bikers gather to witness the magical skies on the shortest night of the year.
6. Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska’s second-largest city, offers a one-of-a-kind midsummer experience. Located at 65 degrees north latitude, this former gold rush town enjoys the Midnight Sun season from April to August, during which the sun never fully sets. The peak of this phenomenon occurs around the summer solstice on June 20/21, when the sun dips no more than 6 degrees below the horizon, resulting in nearly 24 hours of daylight.
The term 'civil twilight' refers to the 'usable daylight hours,' or the amount of light a pilot requires to see objects on the ground. From May 17 to July 27, Fairbanks experiences 70 days of 24-hour official civil twilight. On the longest day—June 21—the sun typically sets at 12:47 am and rises again at 2:59 am.
As the Earth rotates, the Northern Hemisphere tilts closer to the sun, causing sunlight to fall at a sharper angle. The further north you travel, the more daylight hours you will experience at the summer solstice. Alaska’s location, just 315 kilometers (196 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, accounts for this unique phenomenon.
Since 1906, the Alaska Goldpanners have held the Midnight Sun baseball game on June 21. The game begins at 10:30 pm and finishes around 1:30 am, with the floodlights never being turned on throughout the entire event.
5. Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza, an ancient Mayan city located on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, was established around AD 400. By AD 600, it had become a thriving urban center home to thousands of residents. However, the city's population mysteriously disappeared, and by the time Spanish explorers arrived in the 16th century, Chichen Itza had been abandoned and was in ruins.
The Mayans were deeply intrigued by astronomy and meticulously tracked the changing seasons to guide their agricultural practices. The main pyramid of Chichen Itza features 365 steps, one for each day of the year, and was crafted as an early form of calendar. This design allowed the Mayans to track the arrival of key solstices and equinoxes.
Each year, around June 21, the early morning sunlight streams into the north and east sides of the pyramid, leaving the south and west sides in shadow. This creates the illusion that the pyramid is divided in half. For the Mayans, this light phenomenon marked the beginning of summer.
According to legend, if you clap your hands at the base of the pyramid's steps, the echo will replicate the sound of the quetzal bird, a sacred symbol for the Mayans.
4. The Power of Trees
Most Midsummer traditions are rooted in the desire to reconnect with nature during a time when the earth is thriving. Many of these rituals date back to ancient pagan cultures, who viewed trees as sacred beings imbued with magical powers.
The Celts of Britain revered the oak tree as the King of the Forest, admiring its strength and longevity. The Celtic term for oak, 'duir,' translates to 'doorway.' They believed the oak's roots served as a direct link to the underworld, representing the dark winter months to come.
Druids also revered the oak tree, largely because of mistletoe—symbolizing healing and fertility—which seemed to grow only on trees struck by lightning. In reality, mistletoe is a parasitic plant that emerges from a gap in the trunk caused by a lightning strike.
The Druids called the beech tree the 'Queen of the Mother of the Woods,' believing it to be the source of all wisdom. In Celtic tree lore, it was known as the 'tree of wishes.' If a beech branch fell, it was viewed as an invitation from the fairies to write a wish on the branch and bury it in the earth, where the Fairy Queen would read it in the underworld.
3. Stonehenge
Stonehenge is an iconic stone circle located in Wiltshire, UK. Around 2500 BC, sarsen stones were positioned in the center of the circle to align with the sun's movements.
During the summer solstice, if you stand at the heart of the circle, the sun will rise dramatically to the left of a standing stone called the Heel Stone. The Neolithic and Bronze Age builders of Stonehenge were farmers and herders, so tracking the changing seasons was crucial to their survival.
Today, Stonehenge draws Druids, pagans, Wiccans, and nature enthusiasts, all of whom see it as a sacred temple.
Stonehenge's history hasn't always been peaceful. In June 1985, a group known as the 'Peace Convoy' arrived to host a festival. After police set up roadblocks, the convoy broke through, leading to the arrival of 1,200 officers to break up the event. This clash became known as the Battle of the Bean Field, marking the largest civilian mass arrest since World War II.
2. Midsommar
Midsommar in Sweden is an all-out celebration. This outdoor festival, filled with food, drinks, and dancing, kicks off on the weekend closest to June 21. A large green maypole, or 'majstang,' stands at the heart of the festivities, a tradition that dates back to 17th-century Germany.
At Midsommar picnics, you'll find pickled herring and nypotatis—new potatoes with dill—followed by drinking songs and lively dances around the maypole.
In Sweden, midsummer is a time steeped in magic and superstition. According to folklore, if a young woman picks seven different flowers in silence on midsummer eve and places them under her pillow, she will dream of her future love.
Romance fills the air, as an old Swedish saying goes:
“Midsummer night is not long, but it sets many cradles to rock.”
1. Slinningsbalet
Alesund, a municipality in Norway's Western Fjord County, stretches across several islands and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, making it the ideal spot for the world's tallest man-made bonfire.
The event, known as Slinningsbalet, takes place on the Saturday closest to June 23. Historically, bonfires have been ignited across Norway at the summer solstice, symbolizing the dying embers of the sun.
Locals construct a towering structure using wooden crates and pallets, sometimes reaching as high as 40 meters (131 feet). It takes up to 30 people working tirelessly day and night to complete the build, and once finished, crowds gather to watch as volunteers ascend to the top. There, they light a fuse inside a barrel placed at the summit and make their way down as the fire takes hold.
Hundreds of onlookers, arriving by boat or on foot, watch as the towering inferno burns for hours before collapsing into the ocean, signaling the start of midsummer in Norway.
