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Some Midsummer Rituals from the North of England.

Happy Litha everyone! To mark the occasion, here's a collection of customs and rituals pertaining to Midsummer, taken from The Denham Tracts by Michael Denham (1846-59).

The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania by Sir Joseph Noel Paton (1849).

Midsummer Cushions

"This was a custom, used some seventy years ago at many places in the North of England ; but it, like almost every other of the innocent and pleasing customs and amusements of our fore-elders, is fast vanishing away, if it has not altogether done so. The young lads and lasses of the town or village having procured a cushion or, in accordance with local phraseology, a whishion, and covered it with calico, or silk of showy and attractive colour, proceeded to bedeck it with every variety of flower which they could procure out of their parents' and more wealthy neighbours' gardens, displaying them in such a manner so as to give it a most beautiful appearance. All this done, they placed themselves, with their cushion of Flora's choicest gems, in the most public place they conveniently could soliciting of every passer-by a trifling present of pence, which, in numerous cases, was liberally and cheerfully bestowed. A set form of words was made use of (in rhyme, I believe) when soliciting those gifts, the precise version of which I have never been able to obtain. This custom prevailed from Midsummer Day to Magdalene Day, which latter has long been corrupted to 'Maudlin Day'."

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Wells

In Durham, the Lambton Well was used as a wishing well. A crooked pin along with a pebble on which is inscribed the initials of the 'wisher' is thrown into the well at Midsummer and the name of the 'wisher' is entered into a book. When the wish must be reversed, the name is erased from the book, and the pebble and pin are collected.

"Half a century ago it was in repute as a wishing well, and was one of the scenes dedicated to the usual festivities and superstitions of Midsummer Eve. A crooked pin (the usual tribute of the ' wishers ') may sometimes be still discovered, sparkling amongst the clear gravel of the bottom of its basin."

The Colwell, a little north of Hexham, the villagers used to dress their well with flowers, and in Erring Burn near Chollerton on or around 4th July (old Midsummer) -

"... great crowds of people used to assemble here from all the surrounding hamlets and villages. The scene has been described to me as resembling a fair, stalls for the sale of various refreshments being brought from a distance year by year at the summer solstice. The neighbouring slopes had been terraced, and seats formed for the convenience of pilgrims and visitors. One special object of female pilgrims was, I am informed, to pray at the well, or express a silent wish as they stood over it for the cure of barrenness. If the pilgrim's faith were sufficient, her wish at the Bore Well would be certain to be fulfilled within the twelve months."

Over in Monkton near Jarrow, the well of the Venerable Bede was said to have healing properties (as did the wells of Jesmond and Holystone), and children with any infirmities would offer a crooked pin and then be dipped into the well.

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Bonfires

Midsummer Night by Nikolai Astrup (1926).

Rev. Gr. R. Hall, quoted in The Denham Tracts, said:

"The fire festivals or bonfires of the summer solstice at the Old Mid- summer until recently were commemorated on Christenburg Crags [Cumbria] and elsewhere by leaping through and dancing round the fires, as those who have been present have told me..." The driving of cattle through the smoke of the need-fire, as a supposed preventative of murrain, and the carrying from farm to farm as quickly as men could ride the sacred self-lighted fire, made by two pieces of dry or rotted wood being rubbed together very quickly, has occurred at Birtley within the last thirty years ; and this forms one of the most recent survivals of the adoration once so generally rendered to the great orb of day and to the element of fire".

Rev. J. E. Elliot Bates, rector of Whalton (Northumberland) recorded a similar ritual:

"The bonfire ... was lighted a little to the north-east of the well at Whalton, and partly on the footpath, and people danced round it and jumped through it. That was never interrupted."

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Listen. You ARE nature. You’re an entire ecosystem. Your flesh sculpted from the dirt. Your blood brewed from rain water. Thousands of creatures living inside of you, on your skin, who wouldn’t be alive without you just like you wouldn’t be either without them. You are born from the forest and the sea. Be kind to yourself.

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To The Painters of Pompeii - Jordan Bolton

My first book ‘Blue Sky Through the Window of a Moving Car’ is now available to pre-order! Get it here - https://smarturl.it/BlueSky

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Return to the shrine: summer solstice

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why bother caring about the environment when 1. It’s so obviously a lost cause and 2. There’s definitely going to be a nuclear war?

And what are you doing about it Anon? Learn about ecological restoration or get out of my way.

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now the actual solstice has happened in the uk (in the early hours of the morning, while i was sleeping)...

i think maybe my feelings about the Sun at this time of year approach the closest to the way i hear christians speak about their god - awe and fear, not fear like terror but fear like reverence and respect. the Sun sustains life, it feeds the plants that feed us, it gives us the vitamin d we need, but it also burns our skin and gives us cancers and personally it causes me near constant sensory overload if i'm outside in it between like may and mid september. it is beautiful and sacred and life-giving, but i am very wary of it, and need to follow the rules (wear suncream even though it's a sensory ick, stay in the shade, drink lots of water, don't go outside too much, wear sunglasses, etc) to remain - metaphorically at least - on its good side!

anyway, happy solstice! today i have to move all my belongings from my current room in college to a room in a different building because my current room is needed for something, but my parents have offered to drive over to help, and they also offered to drive me to the library to return my books to avoid having to walk for an hour each way in the heat. then i have a rehearsal for a little a capella piece some members of my choir are doing as part of the end of year concert. so i don't have much time (or energy - the heat has kept me awake too long) for elaborate solstice celebrations, but it should be an alright day at least.

a summer solstice poem by someone (me) who does not enjoy hot weather or bright light...

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Happy Summer Solstice/ Midsummer/ Litha! ☀️🍓🌿🌼🐸

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a summer solstice poem by someone (me) who does not enjoy hot weather or bright light...

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Boulder

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i'm making progress on my directory of uk trans resources. it's nowhere near finished - i mean, it will always be a work in progress, but there's a LOT left to add and it's a slow process. but i think i'm making good enough progress to begin publicizing it. please share widely :)

if you have tips on how to make it easier to read, i'd be glad to hear them - if you're going to advise me on this, however, please only do so if you can explain to me HOW to do this, in terms of the html. i am one (autistic and mentally ill) person, doing a phd full time, and am very new to html, so i don't have the ability yet to do more than basic html and i don't have the spoons to teach myself more than a tiny bit at a time.

also, if you have anything to add, please please message me!! do first check if it's already on the page (including the list of unsorted links at the bottom).

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“I’m just, you know, kind of happy in the doing of things. Even just having a great cup of coffee is happiness. Getting an idea, or realizing an idea. Working on a painting…working on a piece of sculpture, working on a film. One thing I noticed is that many of us, we do what we call work for a goal. For a result. And in the doing, it’s not that much happiness. And yet that’s our life going by. If you’re transcending every day, building up that happiness, it eventually comes to: it doesn’t matter what your work is. You just get happy in the work. You get happy in the little things and the big things. And if the result isn’t what you dreamed of, it doesn’t kill you, if you enjoyed the doing of it. It’s important that we enjoy the doing of our life.”

— David Lynch

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small little wonders

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Early Summer Morning by Mikhail Kornilov

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Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor by Dr Stanislav Edward

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life tip: sometimes there's a bird outside & you can look at it