Summer in Danmark: Midsummer Traditions - Page 2© L. Barrett Powell
Page 2
Aug 8, 2005
Your survival depended on whether you could produce good crops and produce heirs. Thus this celebration also held great meaning for all. It was important to know that a potential mate was able to get you pregnant (male) or conceive (female) because if he or she was infertile, your future was in danger. So couples first had a child and then committed their lives to one another.
The date of the midsummer celebration was separated from Beltane and moved into late June when Christianity invaded Northern Europe and co-opted pagan traditions in order to pull pagans into the Christian Church. The festivities were combined with late June celebration of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist. The fertility connotations of the Maypole were considered vulgar and thus removed and dancing around a Maypole was revamped into a child's game. Modern Revival
The revival of non-Christian traditions in the last two decades has seen Midsummer celebrations revert to their origins. Singing and dancing around the Maypole as well as bonfires where symbols witches are burned are being done by adults and children in Denmark and neighboring Sweden and Norway. In fact, children are being taught the songs and dances so that they may continue the tradition. Bonfires, you say? Yes! Bonfires on the beach. Originally meant to protect the celebrants from harmful witches and evil spirits, they are more symbolic today.
Some celebrate the Midsummer Festival on the exact day, and other celebrate on the weekend, so that they lengthen the time they have to revel in the glorious memory of fertility rituals, planting seeds of all kinds (*smiles*), new life and upcoming harvests. The sparkling orange glow of a Midsummer bonfire lights the night and dots the landscape of Danish beaches, there is lots of singing and dancing among friends and family, and there is plenty of good food - schnapps, beer, pickled herring, hotdogs, meatballs etc. Hygge (coziness) abounds! Could you have a more perfect Danish summer night?
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In response to Re: Re: Bonfires posted by denmarkeditor:
No, I don't. But if your are going to search for it, then use th
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-- posted by FrederikHugger
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In response to Re: Bonfires posted by FrederikHugger:
My! Thank you for this very interesting piece of information. I wil
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-- posted by denmarkeditor
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Well ask a german :-)
The burning of witchs is a wery new part of the tradition which was brough to denmark by germans under the potatoimmigratin in the 19 century, but it only became normal to do in
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-- posted by FrederikHugger
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I must say, one thing which had me a bit puzzled when I was conducting research for the article, was the burning of the witch in the bonfire. Considering that witches were not always seen as negative,
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-- posted by denmarkeditor
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