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St. John, oh happy festival,
Thou festival of light,
With songs and happy melodies
Our souls may grow so wide.
For all the beauty of the world
Which loving spirits have unfurled,
Oh come! Oh come ye spirits gay
And dance with us on Saint John's Day.
~Wynstone's "Summer"
Today is Midsummer's Day and marks the half way point of the year -today being the day we celebrate the birth of St. John, which is placed exactly six months before we celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas Eve.
Midsummer traditionally is the season for fire rituals indicative of purification and transformation. The heat of the rising sun is at its peak. Sunflowers grow in the sun...yellow bumble bees buzz from flower to flower, dancing under the golden sun, children flit about like butterflies in the summer breeze.
We are heading to a friends house to swim today and tonight, I will read the girls a wonderful story for Midsummer by the amazing Christine Natale (who is hard at work on her Fairy Tales book) entitled "The Return of the Sun King". Christine was kind enough to share it on my blog a few months ago and I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do! Reading this story on St. Johnstide is our new annual tradition, along with making some sun stars to grace our windows! (pictures to come soon)!
Hope you all enjoy this marvelous day and celebrate the arrival of summer! Christine has published stories about St. Nicholas here. And she began a blog several months ago which can be found here. She has been very busy lately with her new waldorf school, but loves to hear how her stories have touched our children, so feel free to leave her a comment on her blog!
