Folklore-John Baptist Birthday-Johannistag-24 June

Subject: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 20 - 03:25 PM

This is a big deal in Europe,
or at least, it used to be so.
Does it happen in the Americas? Elsewhere?

(24 June, birthday, St. John the Baptist -
is this a Solemnity?)

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 20 - 03:33 PM

"Johannistag" is referenced in
Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg opera.
(A riot breaks out in the streets, in case you are curious.)

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 20 - 03:37 PM

... yes, this feast day IS a Solemnity.
And the French Canadians celebrate it in this hemisphere.
Don't know about
Spanish- or Brazilian- speaking Catholics, though.

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 20 - 03:40 PM

... and what is this, in the Philippines, about
"Wattah Wattah" and "basaan,"   
which someone has prudently cancelled this year
because of coronavirus?

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: cnd
Date: 23 Jun 20 - 07:07 PM

I have never heard of it happening in the US and have been a Christian my whole life

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 20 - 09:13 PM

Maybe it is more about Roman Catholicism.
??

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 20 - 09:21 PM

... oh, and one more thing:
I read that in former centuries,
the church cheerfully conflated this religious feast,
being on 24 June,
with the pagan midsummer observances.

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 20 - 09:24 PM

Check out this primer about the German customs.

Johannistag (Midsummer's Day) in Germany

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jun 20 - 11:24 AM

Johannisfeuer, a bonfire also known as a "need-fire".

Jakob Grimm's Teutonic Mythology has an entire chapter on "need-fires" (Noth-Feuer).

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 24 Jun 20 - 04:04 PM

Keberoxu: "The holy church celebrates the birth-tide of three people: of the Saviour, who is God and man, and of John his herald, and of the blessed Mary his mother." HERE. So it only goes to reason with the reduction of the Mother of the Saviour to a voiceless prop of Protestant Christmas plays & pageants Saint John the Baptist his herald would be eliminated altogether. No Popery allowed and certainly no bonfires - a honor reserved for Guy

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 24 Jun 20 - 04:09 PM

Now in my little hometown the college would have big bonfire for October homecomings, and I mean BIG! The kids, (with the help of the city fathers), would install four 90 foot poles in a square and lattice them with boards then all the boys would play rapscallion and run from house to house gathering wooden items for the bonfire, (I hate to think how many now priceless chairs where included). I remember watching them perilously climbing that stack handing items up from hand to hand to the top of the pile. Unfortunately I never saw the actual fire since that happen well past my bedtime.

Subject: RE: Folklore: birthday, John the Baptist/Johannistag
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jun 20 - 07:41 PM

... hope everybody had a happy one.

Subject: RE: Folklore-John the Baptist/BirthJohannistag-24 June
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jun 20 - 09:02 PM

In the calendar published by the U.S. Catholic Bishops, June 25 is the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, a Solemnity. Vestment color is white.

March 25 is another Solemnity, The Annunciation of the Lord - which according to Luke, was the day Jesus was conceived.


There's nothing special around September 25, but I suppose that's when John the Baptist would have been conceived. Oh, but the Nativity of Mary is September 8, so that's not far off the quarterly cycle. And then, of course, December 25 is celebrated as the Nativity of Jesus.

In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite, a solemnity is a feast day of the highest rank celebrating a mystery of faith such as the Trinity, an event in the life of Jesus, his mother Mary, or another important saint. The observance begins with the vigil on the evening before the actual date of the feast.

Many Christian and pagan celebrations coincide, perhaps because Christians used to be pagans. My wife pays more attention the cross-quarter days between the solstices and equinoxes.

And the seasons, they go round and round....

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Folklore-John Baptist Birthday-Johannistag-24 June
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 01:56 AM

The local Catholic church a couple miles north of town had bonfires every once in a while, (if you can call the church burning down a bonfire.) After the third fire they pooled their money and built a nice brick one. Being careless with candles I guess. At least they finally learnt to speak English.