June 24th, is Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, honoring Saint John the Baptist, the patron saint of French Canadians.
And there is a plant associated with the holiday, the blue flag iris , now promoted as a symbol of the province and French Canadians everywhere.
#FaustianFriday
'St. John’s Wort, the herb of Midsummer, was potent against spells and the power of fairies, evil spirits and the Devil.'
-Katharine Mary Briggs
🎨Masaaki Sasamoto
#Superstitiology #FaustianFriday
Up until the 1920s, people would come from afar to buy the ashes of Motreff's midsummer bonfire whose miraculous properties were widely believed to help corn grow. It was also said to help make the best poultices for treating chest ailments! #FaustianFriday
The Snork Maiden describes a Moomin Valley custom: after the Midsummer bonfire burned down you'd collect 9 kinds of flowers and place them under your pillow, and your dreams would come true.
'But you weren't allowed to say a word while you picked them...' #FaustianFriday 1/2
Sir Walter Scott's The Eve of St John tells of a Lady who meets her lover for 3 nights by the midsummer bonfire. But when her husband returns from battle, she discovers he killed the lover 3 nights ago, she had lain with a ghost #FaustianFriday #bookchatweekly #ofdarkandmacabre
Yarrow has been used since ancient times for healing wounds, and its essential oil has anti-inflammatory properties. Yarrow was also used as a ward against evil, and traditionally it was burned on the eve of St John's Day.
#FaustianFriday
#FaustianFriday
🖤🖤🖤
In Swabia, boys and girls would jump over the midsummer bonfire, hand in hand, hoping that the hemp crops would grow tall and strong. It's said some folk would cry out as they leapt:
'Flax, flax! may the flax this year grow seven ells high!'
While Washington Irving's The Christmas Dinner obviously takes place at Christmas, it does include the telling of a ghost story that describes Midsummer Eve as being 'when it was well known all kinds of ghosts, goblins, and fairies become visible and walk abroad.' #FaustianFriday
Her Pansy Eyes💜
“Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell.
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before, milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it ‘love-in-idleness.’”
—A Midsummer Night’s Dream
#FaustianFriday #BookChatWeekly
#InternationalFairyDay
Lore has it druids, using golden sickles, cut mistletoe from oak trees in sacred rituals at #midsummer , when the plant was said to harness the soul of the oak, & its powers of protection, healing & fertility were at their strongest. #FolkloreThursday #FaustianFriday
It's said that creativity's hampered by faeries jealous of folk who may surpass their own abilities. They spin moonlight & bind the soul just before dawn to lock in their gifts. Remedy: a posy of St. John's Wort or iron nail beneath your pillow.
#OfDarkAndMacabre #FaustianFriday
It's Saint John's Eve, my lovelies. In Mexico, this night is often celebrated with fireworks!! 🎆🖤
Art: Erin Hansen
#faustianfriday #superstitiology #writingcommunity #bookchatweekly
In Irish lore, on #StJohnsEve the souls of the sleeping leave their bodies and visit the place of their death...
#FaustianFriday #Midsummer
🌿🌙🌿Fernseed, gathered at midnight on Midsummer Eve, was believed to bestow the power to become invisible, to summon any living creature, and to find treasure - but the Fae were said to attack or drive mad anyone who tried.
#FolkloreThursday #FaustianFriday #Superstitiology
'On St. John’s Eve the bonfires are lit at the cross-roads... in order to counteract the power of the Trolls and other evil spirits, who are believed to be abroad that night' (Frazer)
🎨 John Bauer
#FaustianFriday #superstitiology #StJohnsEve
#ofdarkandmacabre
#FaustianFriday
St. John’s Eve, a celebration of light & fire, takes place on June 23rd & coincides with the #SummerSolstice . It was venerated in New Orleans by Voudou High Priestess Marie Laveau & commemorated by a head-washing ceremony.
#FaustianFriday According to Irish lore, hanging yarrow about the house on St. John’s Eve will ward off evil spirits. St John’s Eve was also said to be the best time for picking yarrow to be used for medicinal purposes, while reciting an incantation.
