Midsummer comes all too quickly on the heels of a late Spring. To many of us it is a reminder that the year is half spent and, perhaps, so little accomplished.

The summer solstice, June 21st, was a significant date in both pagan and early Christian times. Pre—Christian communities were small by modern standards and bound closely to the land, so it is not surprising that they were deeply concerned with the changing seasons. The lengthening or shortening daylight and the waxing and waning of the sun’s power were of the greatest importance in their cultivation of food crops. High and low ‘watermarks’ the longest and shortest days were invested with magical properties.

On Midsummer Eve spirits were abroad, both good and evil, and needed to be honoured and propitiated. Fires were lit to honour the sun, branches of fresh green trees adorned doorways, while men, women and animals wore sprays of herbs or plants to ward off evil. Among these was the plant known as St. John s Wort (Hypericum).

Early Christian compilers of calendars had the happy knack of marrying pagan feasts with Christian festivals. Midsummer Day was moved from the true date of the Solstice to the birthday of St. John the Baptist, June 24th. Who knows where his birth was registered?…..

By the 15th century the witches had begun to lose credence and St. John’s Eve was a time of more innocent merriment and dancing round the bonfires. The pranks and amusements of the workmen and fairies in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” reflect Shakespeare’s knowledge of early festivals in Arden.

Who knows what Midsummer customs were observed in our villages? We are told that the Rollright Stones originated when a certain king from the South of England marched to the Midlands to conquer Mercia. On the Rowlditch Ridge he paused-to gaze over the Midland Plain but exchanged angry words with a local witch who turned both king and his followers into stone, and herself into an ‘eldern’ tree. On Midsummer Eve the King Stone bows to the ‘eldern’ tree.

What other local legends of fairies and Witches survive?

Geoffrey Law