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Midsummer bathing

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Posted on 2017-06-23 in

Fountain next to St John’s hermitage in Garai (Bizkaia), seat of the brotherhood of Momoitio. José Ignacio García Muñoz. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Many of the popular beliefs and rites surrounding St John’s Day (Doniane, in Basque) on 24 June are reminiscent of ancient summer solstice celebrations and cults.

Above and beyond the traditional bonfires still lit at dusk on the eve, back in the days when society lived in closer contact with nature, other elements of our environment acquired on the day a new healthy vigour. So it was with the water from sources and rivers, the morning dew, the trees, the grasses and the flowers. (more…)

Hernia healing on St John’s Night

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Posted on 2016-06-24 in
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Hernia repair rite on St John’s Night. Taken from: R.M Azkue. Euskalerriaren Yakintza, I. Madrid, 1947.

Many beliefs and rituals around the Feast of St John the Baptist which persist to this day are reminiscent of ancient celebrations of the summer solstice. They make up a variegated set of myths, symbols and practices regarding, along with others, fresh water springs, the morning dew, baths in the sea, flowers and herbs, bonfires and special trees. (more…)

Donilatxa, the celebration tree

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Posted on 2016-06-03 in
San Juan de Murgoitio Berriz

St John’s hermitage in Murgoitio, 1995. Berriz (Bizkaia). José Ignacio García Muñoz. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Between dawn and sunrise on St John’s Day, it is customary to place an oak or ash branch decorated with a bunch of herbs and flowers on front doors of houses and hermitages dedicated to the saint. Ears of wheat would also be added to the arrangement in earlier times, and a peeled splinter inserted in the wood of the branch to make a rustic cross. St John’s oak bouquet (sanjuan-haretxa, in Basque) is in point of fact a traditional symbol of the summer solstice. (more…)

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