A Midsummer Night’s Scream

Thursday the 22nd is the Summer Solstice. It is the midpoint between Beltane and Lammas. The Summer Solstice celebrates the longest day of the year. After the Solstice, the days will slowly get shorter as the night begins its journey into ascendancy. Day and night will finally become equal at the Equinox. For now, the southern hemisphere will be enjoying/enduring some very hot weather.

In the northern hemisphere the opposite is happening. The Winter Solstice is the midpoint between Halloween and Imbolc. The Winter Solstice celebrates the longest night of the year. As Winter is a very dark time, naturally there are a bevy of scary legends to chill your Midwinter soul.

For those of us celebrating the Summer Solstice, we may have to get creative to add darkness and gothness to a festival celebrating the Sun at its most powerful point. Or do we? After a quick dance through the internet I managed to find a pretty scary Midsummer tradition. Well it’s particularly scary if you are a witch!

In some Scandinavian countries, the Summer Solstice is tied to the birthday of Saint John the Baptist. On the eve of his birthday, fires are lit to ward off any evil sprints that may come calling. As part of the celebrations, a large effigy of a witch is burned. Sometimes the witch is filled with firecrackers. One writer suggests that the sound of the exploding firecrackers mimics the sound of a witch screaming. Okay, this isn’t sounding good. I need to find another way to goth-up Midsummer.

If burning a screaming witch effigy doesn’t appeal to you either, then maybe you can add a bit of darkness to the light by joining me in celebrating Gothmas! Gothmas is simply a dark and gothic Xmas (think Halloween but with Xmas decorations) and it is fast becoming a tradition in both hemispheres.

This is the first year that I’ve started collecting Gothmas decorations and so far I have a witchy advent calendar with a cute fox date marker, a black Santa hat, and coffin shaped Xmas present earrings in Xmas colours. I even got a surprise Gothmas present as the earrings came with a “Merry Gothmas” tote bag!

As this turbulent year finally winds to its end I would like to wish everyone a Happy Gothmas and a Harpy New Year! (Yes I did mean Harpy) 🙂

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