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In which country is Midsummer Festival celebrated?

The traditional Finnish Midsummer Festival (JUHANNUS) celebrates the longest day of sunshine in Finland, and it is also a festival for the whole country to enjoy drinking.

Midsummer Festival is a traditional festival in the Nordic countries. Held around June 24th every year. It was originally set up to commemorate the summer solstice. After Northern Europe converted to Catholicism, it was set up to commemorate the birthday of Christian John the Baptist (June 24). Later, its religious color gradually disappeared and became a folk festival.

On this day, everyone will drive to the Midsummer Party in the country! There are various forms of gatherings. Or reunite with family members living in the country and celebrate the Midsummer Festival; or set up small tents and sun umbrellas for shade in your own yard or on the lawn of the lakeside holiday cabin, and the whole family is at ease under the aroma of grilled sausages and barbecue. Enjoy the warm wind and sun. When the food is ready, the whole family will have a drink. When the wine is full, a toast is invited to sing. The blue cross flag on the snow is raised in the garden, and everyone sings the national anthem drunk.

Passionate Carnival “Companion Island”

Apart from gatherings with family and friends, if you want to immerse yourself in the endless joy of the Finnish Midsummer Festival, the best place is of course the Companion Island on the outskirts of Helsinki, which is also the largest place to celebrate the Midsummer Festival in Finland. On the day of the festival, people, old and young, drove to the island one after another. The quiet island was crowded with people, and there was a festive atmosphere everywhere. There are many activities on the island during the day, and the island is full of carnival tourists.

On the improvised stage, singers and bands sang hard, and thousands of spectators enthusiastically joined in. On the side of the road, locals wear national costumes, and local residents demonstrate various unique crafts to tourists in small traditional handicraft workshops built; on the grass, young men and women dance disco with music, enthusiastic and full of dance The dynamic melody infected the surrounding tourists, and people couldn’t help but join in the larger and larger group dance… The scene was extremely lively.

Bonfire

Lighting a bonfire is the centerpiece of Midsummer’s Day. When evening came, crowds flocked to the lake. On the rock in the middle of the lake, a large bonfire piled up with dozens of old boats and branches is tens of meters high, surrounded by many small bonfires. At ten o’clock in the evening, people first lit piles of small bonfires, and after a while, a wooden boat sent the bride and groom who had just been married in the church to the bonfire. He took the torch in his hand and lit the bonfire. In an instant, the fire soared into the sky, and the fire reflected the water surface red. At this time, the people watching on the bank couldn’t help dancing, and the celebration reached its climax.

Custom

Midsummer Festival has become a festival to wish for a good harvest, attracting broad masses of people. Every Midsummer Festival, people dressed in national costumes are all beaming and come to the central square in an endless stream to participate in the festival parade. A beautiful young girl is dressed as the “Goddess of Grain”. She wears a yellow corolla woven with cauliflower, ancient costume and a bright shawl.

Led by the “Goddess of Grain”, the parade marched forward mightily. When the “goddess of grain” came to the wheat field that was about to be harvested, drums and music rang together, and cheers were everywhere. People surrounded the “Goddess of Grain” and danced lightly. The joyful crowd sang and danced, completely immersed in the joy of a good harvest. The summer solstice is naturally a day for people to revel and enjoy all night. However, the celebrations in the Nordic countries are not the same, and each has its own splendor.

In ancient times, some people in Europe believed that picking marigold and other herbs on the eve of Midsummer Eve would have magical healing effects; local residents lit torches or bonfires when they went out to drive away lonely souls or elves in the wild.

To this day, in places such as Stonehenge (ancient site) in England, people still celebrate Midsummer according to the ancient local rituals, and huge bonfires are also lit during the celebration.