John's
EVE OF ST., one of the most joyous festivals of Christendom during the Middle Ages, celebrated on Midsummer Eve. Fires were kindled chiefly in the streets and market places of the towns; sometimes they were blessed by the parish priest, but as a rule they were secular in their character. The young people leaped over the flames, or threw flowers and garlands into them, with merry songs, and dances. In England the people on the Eve of St. John's went into the woods and gathered boughs which were placed over their doors, to make good the prophecy respecting the Baptist, that many should rejoice in his birth. It was a lingering belief of the Irish peasantry that the souls of all people on this night leave their bodies and wander to their ultimate place of death by land or sea.