Rasos or Midsummer’s night feast
Have you ever thought how great it would be to know all the answers? You know — the important ones, like what is Life, the Universe, and Everything, but also the small ones, like what the hell my husband or girlfriend is thinking about right now?
I’ll tell you a secret — you can instantly gain that knowledge by finding a magical blossom of the fern in the forest on Midsummers night feast, also called Rasos in the ancient land of Balts.
It may sound easy, but you actually have to participate in the activities leading up to this magical night, you can’t just hop off the plane and go blundering around in the forest looking for the blossoming ferns. That way you’ll easily anger all the forest spirits and more than likely end up somewhere unpleasant, like in a bog.
Midsummer’s Night is the shortest night of the year, twilight continues well into the night and almost before the true darkness finally comes, the sun comes up again in the East. The sun is our source of life on this planet, so on the summer solstice, people are honoring her, thanking her for the light and warmth, and wishing her a good journey to winter. Sun is one of the most powerful goddesses in the mythology of the Baltics.
On this night three main forces of nature are most active and celebrated like on no other occasion. That is fire, water, and earth that give life. Midsummers Night or Rasos is one of the most ancient festivities, it has so much power and meaning even now because the tradition never had been stopped, even the forced Christianity on this land couldn’t erase it like so many other unique traditions, it just gave the feast another name — Jonines (the feast of Saint John), although there has never been anything most slightly Christian on that feast. The main goal is to make sure plants will grow and prosper, to set boundaries and restricting spells from evil spirits and unfriendly forces, to renew the home fire from the Rasos bonfire. No one goes to sleep on this magical night, as there is so much to do before the morning.
So, let me tell you at least some of the activities you can engage in before going for the magical blossom.
Firstly — find a community or a group of people who are about to celebrate Rasos. That one is easy if you’re already in Lithuania or Latvia because here almost everybody celebrates it, and join them, as to do everything on your own will be too much work and not so fun.
Now, depending on who you are you can pick at least two or three traditions to participate in.
For instance — if you’re an unmarried girl (and are thinking that you want to get married eventually), you can twine a wreath from wildflowers (especially look for yellow and blue ones, as those, have more power on this night) silently (don’t say a word even if someone asks you anything during the work), find a tree with low branches, turn away from it and try to through your wreath so that it will hang on one of the branches. The number of tries will be your number of years yet to wait for the happy occasion to happen.
If you have an illness of some kind (or constant pain) you can try bathing in the river or lake on this night or early in the morning before sunrise. People believe that water is healing on Rasos. In ancient times everyone who had cattle or other animals was trying to bathe even them before the sun rises, as it believed that by doing so, everyone will be healthy and beautiful all year long. Don’t expect to turn into a model or anything though, everyone is beautiful in their own unique way. If you’re not so brave as to jump into the cold water, you can achieve the same effect by rolling around in the meadow when the morning dew comes down.
Another tradition is to find a boat and decorate it with wildflowers. Then take a burning candle or any other source of fire with you and go wave good by to the setting sun. You can thank the goddess for all the good things she gave this year and ask her to come back again the next year.
One of the oldest traditions is going Kupoliauti — to gather blossoming plants in the meadows that evening or early in the morning. You have to find nine different plants, better look for yellow or blue blossoms. It is believed that a bouquet like this has magical powers through the year, so don’t through it away afterward, dry them and keep them at home till the next summer solstice, it will guard your household from evil spirits.
The big bonfire in the middle of the celebrations is a must on midsummer's night feast. This activity you will probably join anyway because everybody will be there. People are singing and dancing around it, jumping over it and bringing the smoking pieces of wood back home in the morning to renew the fire in the main fireplace, to cleanse and please the fire goddess Gabija, for she otherwise will stop protecting the house next year.
When the short darkness finally falls, comes the time to go look for the blossoming fern. It’s not done by command, people are usually sneaking away from the main celebration around the bonfire secretly alone or in pairs, keeping in mind places in the forest they looked at when it was still light where the blossom might appear. It is believed that only one fern in the forest will bloom that night and it is highly protected by the forest spirits and creatures you don’t want to bump into in the darkness, so it’s quite dangerous business, but if you succeed, you will be the smartest person on Earth, you’ll know everything about everything. It might be worth a try, even if you’re not really into these ultimate questions because knowledge includes the places where all the hidden treasures are.
There are many old tales about fern blossoms and people who found them. Here is one:
The fern blossom in the clog
One young fellow was walking in the forest that night looking for the fern blossom. It was dark, but people believed that this blossom should glow and be visible at night. As he was walking around and starting to think he would never find the fern, he suddenly started to know everything about the world and everyone in the world. He knew what was happening at home and in the neighborhood, he knew what all the people were thinking, what was going on in the world. ‘How can this be?’ — he thought, — ’ How come I know everything? I didn’t find the fern blossom!’. But it was nearly morning, so he came out of the forest to greet the sun with everybody else. He started to change his clogs to the better shoes, which were saved for the occasion, and suddenly went back to not knowing anything. He turned around not understanding what had changed, then shook his head and went to the bonfire. Only when he headed towards home it occurred to him that probably the fern blossom had fallen into his clog, and it must have fallen out while he was changing shoes…
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