RASOS on ST. JOHN day (Midsummer day)

From ancient times people marked the time of the return of the sun, the shortest night. In olden times it was called the Feast of the DEWS, (RASOS in Lithuanian). When Christianity was established in Lithuania, the name was changed to Feast of St. John, according to agrarian folk calendar, the start of haying.
                      On the Feast of St John a special role was granted to the sun. The sun is constantly mentioned in songs sung on the longest day of the year.
                      Farmers paid special attention to water's special powers in reviving soil and making it productive. Maidens tried to get up before sunrise, collect the dew and wash their faces with it to make them bright and beautiful. They would also get up at night, go outside to wet their faces in the dew and returned to bed without wiping their faces dry. If that night they dreamt of a young man bringing them a towel, they hoped that he would be the one they would marry.

                      Flourishing plants were worshipped because it was believed that plants collected on the eve of the Feast of St. John posses magic powers to heal, bring luck and foretell the future. Nine plants with healing powers were called Kupole, plants of the Feast of St. John. Folklore shows that Kupole was the Goddess of plants, living in aromatic plants, blossoms or in buds in summer and in snowdrifts in winter.
                      It was believed that wreaths concentrate perpetual life's forces and are symbols of immortality and life. Walk around three fields and gather bunches of nine flowers, twine a wreath and place it under your pillow. You will marry the man, who in your dream comes to take away the wreath. At midnight, twelve wreaths were dropped into a river and observed if they were pairing off. If no pairing off occurred, there was to be no marriage that year.

                      The rites of this day continued till sunrise around bonfires. The site selected for ritual bonfires was always in the most beautiful area, on hills, on river shores and near lakes. Jumping over fires or around it had magic meaning. Ritual bonfires cleansed both physically and psychologically. Jumping over the fire was carried out with the belief of making better health, increasing body strength for hard summer labors and assuring better growth of grain and flax.

                      During the night of the Feast of St. John, the miraculous fern bursts into bloom. It is difficult to catch sight of this blogom. Some say that the fern bloom is like birch dust, others describe it as round and white like carp's scale. 
Send by Rima Stongviliene, Lithuania