from the Celtic Folk Customs book by Brian Day...
CELTIC. Many surviving customs have their origins in ancient sun
worship and purification rites, intended to encourage the sun to keep
shining, and were mainly a feature of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian
settlement or influence, such as Cornwall, Lowland and eastern Scotland,
Orkney and Shetland, but spread to other areas. Bonfires are lit in
memory of the Druid Beltrane fires, though Druidic and Scandinavian
customs have become entwined today. As with all cusps in the folk
calendar, protective and preventative measures were called for. Prayers
and pleas were uttered while walking sunwise round the fire. Children
joined hands and leapt through the embers to symbolise growth of corn
and harvest abundance. Farmers drove animals through the embers to
protect them from disease and carried brands sunwise round fields to
purify the crops. Ancient druidic divination practices survive in
midsummer rites. Rural people associated the night with faeries,
spirits and ghosts of the past. A garland of St John's Wort picked at
dawn was fixed to the door to protect the household from faeries, and
other sacred plants had magical properties, such as yarrow, mugwort and
elder. The morning dew was credited with the same healing and
beautifying powers as May morning dew.
As on St Mark's Eve (24th April) it was thought that divination
ceremonies tonight could reveal who would soon die, or a future lover.
WALES. The 'summer birch' was erected this evening in Glamorgan,
probably moved here from Midsummer Eve. This was a pole trimmed smooth
so that pictures could be painted on it. As if in solar imagery, it was
then decorated with gilded, beribboned wreaths, with a gilded,
beribboned weather-cock on top. It was guarded with pride against
attempts by outsiders to steal it. Some villages did not paint, or even
decorate, the birch. Like all maypole customs in Wales this died out at
the end of the 19th century.
--
Pat Connors, Sacramento CA
http://www.connorsgenealogy.com
Professional Genealogy Research
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