Weather: If it rains on St.
John's Day, nuts will go bad and wicked women will thrive; however, apples,
pears and plums will not be hurt.
Midsummer rain spoils hay
and grain.
If it rains on St. John's
Day, we may expect a wet harvest.
If it rains on St. John’s
Day, it will rain another four weeks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gardening: The best hay is made before midsummer
St. John’s Day is considered
a good time for sowing, and when the sun shines on his day, nuts will be
abundant during the coming year [this
being an election year, an abundance of nuts is a sure bet.]
If you lop a tree on St.
John’s Day it will wither.
Cut your thistles before St.
John,
you will have two instead of one
[so
leave those thistles standing another day]
Up to St. John’s day, wine
is fit only for peasants
[in other words,
the wine of last year’s vintage is not good until after Midsummer. Fine. Along with the thistles, leave last year’s vintage alone for
another day. Or be a peasant with
me.]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
Because he hath visited and
wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn
of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of
his holy prophets, who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our
fathers, and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he sware to
Abraham our father, that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from
the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice
before him, all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be
called the prophet of the Highest:
For thou shalt go before the
face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of
salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the
mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us
To enlighten them that sit
in darkness, and in the shadow of death:
To direct our feet into the
way of peace.
The Canticle of
Zachary Luke 1:68-79
The woodcut above is from a
1489 Dutch edition of The Golden Legend.
In it we see St. Elizabeth looking peaceful after her ordeal; an
attendant smiling; the Virgin (also smiling) holding St. John; another attendant, steadying the baby's head [Our Lady was a virgin, after all; she might not have known how to hold babies]; and St. Zachary
writing “His name is John”, for the benefit of those who wanted to name the boy
after him.
That Mary stayed for the
birth of John is not specifically mentioned in the Bible [so from whom did Luke get the story?], but the author of the early
14th century work, “The Life of Christ” (attributed to St.
Bonaventure) stated that: “When
Elisabeth’s full time was come, she was happily delivered of a son, which our
Lady received in her arms, and swaddled with becoming care. The infant, as if conscious of the
majesty of its nurse, fixed his eyes steadfastly upon her, so taken with her
beauty, that when she delivered him again to his mother, he still looked
towards her, as if he could take delight in none but her, while she delighted
in playing with him and embraced and sweetly kissed him.” Another legend of the Virgin says that
she prolonged her visit, received the child in her arms, and presented him to
Zachary. These and several other
meditations influenced the iconography of this scene.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
St. John is one of three whose
birthday is celebrated by the Church – the other two being Our Lord and the
Virgin Mary. As such, the
festivities were large and varied, with pomp and ceremony, with dancing,
feasting, and (of course) bonfires.
Naturally, that good
Protestant Naogeorgus couldn’t let the day pass without bemoaning those silly
Papist customs:
"Then doth the joyful feast
of John the Baptist take his turn,
When bonfires great, with
lofty flame, in every town do burn,
And young men round about
with maids do dance in every street,
With garlands wrought of
Motherwort, or else with Vervain sweet,
And many other flowers fair,
with Violets in their hands,
Whereas they all do fondly
think, that whosoever stands,
And through the flowers
beholds the flame, his eyes shall feel no pain.
When thus ‘til night they
danced have, they through the fire a-main,
With striving minds, do run,
and all their herbs they cast therein,
And then with words devout
and prayers they solemnly begin,
Desiring God that all their
ills may there consumed be;
Whereby they think through
all that year from agues to be free.
Some others get a rotten
wheel, all worn and cast aside,
Which covered round about
with straw and tow, they closely hide;
And carried to some
mountain’s top, being all with fire light,
They hurl it down with
violence, when dark appears the night,
Resembling much the sun,
that from the Heavens down should fall,
A strange and monstrous
sight it seems, and fearful to them all,
But they suppose their
mischiefs all are likewise thrown to hell,
And that from harms and
dangers now, in safety here they dwell.”
The heck with him! Wear yellow today (the color of the
sun), renew your baptismal vows, build a (fully protected) bonfire, dance, and
feast your friends.
And give thanks to God for
his continuing mercies.
For a fuller explanation,
please see The Catholic Encyclopedia: St. John the Baptist.
Catholic Culture: June 24 has more information
and several activities and recipes for celebrating this feast. Fisheaters beautifully ties together the story of
John and the customs surrounding his day, including a blessing for St. John's
Bonfire.
