Midsummer

Next: Thursday 24 June 2027

24 June, Midsummer Day, and the eve before it, kept with bonfires on hilltops.

The year ahead

Wednesday 23 June

Wed 23 Jun All day
Custom, day 1 of 5

Cambridge Midsummer Fair

Sets off from Midsummer Common, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

Thursday 24 June

Thu 24 Jun Cambridge Midsummer Fair day 2 of 5 · All day

Friday 25 June

Fri 25 Jun Cambridge Midsummer Fair day 3 of 5 · All day

Saturday 26 June

Sat 26 Jun Cambridge Midsummer Fair day 4 of 5 · All day

Sunday 27 June

Sun 27 Jun Cambridge Midsummer Fair day 5 of 5 · All day

Sunday 4 July

Sun 4 Jul from 18:30
Custom

Whalton Baal Fire

Sets off from Whalton village green, Northumberland

Monday 5 July

Mon 5 Jul from 11:00
Custom

Tynwald Day

Tynwald Hill, St John's, Isle of Man

Folklore from the old calendars

Catching fern seed Lore and belief EnglandBecause the seed of the fern is too small to see, people reasoned that whoever held it would become invisible.
Laying out the Dolemoors No longer kept SomersetOn the Saturday before Old Midsummer Day the two common moors called Dolemoors, in the parishes of Congresbury, Week St Lawrence and Puxton, were shared out among those with rights in them.
Midsummer men Lore and belief EnglandOn Midsummer Eve girls set sprigs of orpine in clay on a slate or potsherd and called them Midsummer men.
Sir Thomas Parkyns’s wrestling No longer kept NottinghamshireSir Thomas Parkyns, a Nottinghamshire squire, was a keen wrestler who trained his servants and neighbours, showed them off in public and wrote a book called The Cornish Hug Wrestler.
St John’s Eve fires in Ireland Still kept IrelandDonald McQueen of Skye told of seeing the Irish St John's Eve fires in 1782.
Struell Wells on Midsummer Eve No longer kept UlsterAt Stoole, as Hone calls Struell, near Downpatrick, crowds gathered from midnight on Midsummer Eve at a mount sacred to St Patrick with three holy wells.
The Marching Watch No longer kept LondonIn medieval London a watch of at least two thousand men paraded the city on Midsummer Eve and again on the eves of St Peter and St Paul.
The Midsummer watch at Nottingham No longer kept NottinghamshireUntil the reign of Charles I every householder of means in Nottingham sent a man, armed with pike, musket or halberd, to keep a general watch on Midsummer Eve.
The Ripon welcome table No longer kept YorkshireAt Ripon on Midsummer Eve, every householder who had moved into a new neighbourhood during the year set a table in the street before his door with bread, cheese and ale for anyone who cared to come.
The sermon in green boughs Still kept OxfordshireOn St John the Baptist's Day a sermon was preached at Magdalen College from a stone pulpit in the corner of the first court, and the court was hung with green boughs so that the preaching would look like the Baptist's in the wilderness.
The soul’s ramble on St John’s Eve Lore and belief IrelandChambers records the Irish belief that on St John's Eve every person's soul leaves the body and travels to the place where it will finally part from it in death.
Thomas Oken’s bonfires No longer kept WarwickshireThomas Oken of Warwick, in a deed of 1571, charged his feoffees to pay a few shillings every year to the neighbours of his bonfire and of three other bonfires in the High Pavement ward.
Watching in the church porch Lore and belief EnglandIn England it was believed that anyone who sat up fasting all night in the church porch on St John's Eve would see the spirits of those who were to die in the parish in the coming year.

Wednesday 23 June

Cambridge Midsummer Fair

Thursday 24 June

Friday 25 June

Saturday 26 June

Sunday 27 June

Sunday 4 July

Whalton Baal Fire

Monday 5 July

Tynwald Day

Folklore from the old calendars

Image credits