The Midsummer Fires
Excerpted from The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer
Texts>The Midsummer Fires
A writer of
the first half of the sixteenth century informs us that in almost every
village and town of Germany public bonfires were kindled on the Eve of
St. John, and young and old, of both sexes, gathered about them and passed
the time in dancing and singing. People on this occasion wore chaplets
of mugwort and vervain, and they looked at the fire through bunches of
larkspur which they held in their hands, believing that this would preserve
their eyes in a healthy state throughout the year. As each departed,
he threw the mugwort and vervain into the fire, saying, “May all
my ill-luck depart and be burnt up with these.” At Lower Konz,
a village situated on a hillside overlooking the Moselle, the midsummer
festival used to be celebrated as follows. A quantity of straw was collected
on the top of the steep Stromberg Hill. Every inhabitant, or at least
every householder, had to contribute his share of straw to the pile.
At nightfall the whole male population, men and boys, mustered on the
top of the hill; the women and girls were not allowed to join them, but
had to take up their position at a certain spring half-way down the slope.
On the summit stood a huge wheel completely encased in some of the straw
which had been jointly contributed by the villagers; the rest of the
straw was made into torches. From each side of the wheel the axle-tree
projected about three feet, thus furnishing handles to the lads who were
to guide it in its descent. The mayor of the neighbouring town of Sierck,
who always received a basket of cherries for his services, gave the signal;
a lighted torch was applied to the wheel, and as it burst into flame,
two young fellows, strong-limbed and swift of foot, seized the handles
and began running with it down the slope. A great shout went up. Every
man and boy waved a blazing torch in the air, and took care to keep it
alight so long as the wheel was trundling down the hill. The great object
of the young men who guided the wheel was to plunge it blazing into the
water of the Moselle; but they rarely succeeded in their efforts, for
the vineyards which cover the greater part of the declivity impeded their
progress, and the wheel was often burned out before it reached the river.
As it rolled past the women and girls at the spring, they raised cries
of joy which were answered by the men on the top of the mountain; and
the shouts were echoed by the inhabitants of neighbouring villages who
watched the spectacle from their hills on the opposite bank of the Moselle.
If the fiery wheel was successfully conveyed to the bank of the river
and extinguished in the water, the people looked for an abundant vintage
that year, and the inhabitants of Konz had the right to exact a waggon-load
of white wine from the surrounding vineyards. On the other hand, they
believed that, if they neglected to perform the ceremony, the cattle
would be attacked by giddiness and convulsions and would dance in their
stalls.
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