ST. JOHN'S EVE. Ancient as Well as Modern Nations Light the Fire of Joy.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 220, 17 September 1887, Page 5

ST. JOHN'S EVE.

Ancient as Well as Modern Nations Light the Fire of Joy.

The Irish- believe that on the Eve of Sc. John the souls of all persons leave their bodies and wander to the place, on land or sea, where death will overtake the body. In England, it was an article of faith that a person who sat up fasting all night in the church porch would &cc the sphits of all persons who were to die dining the year come in their proper order and knock ad the church door. On a ceitain occasion ifc is told that one of those who watched fell asleep &o boundly that he could not be awakened, while his spirit, in tho interim, passed his companions and asked admission, within the church. Maximus Tauricensis, who li\cd about the year 400, is the first who mentions the festival of St. John the Baptist ; but fiom the remotest antiquity, says Mrs White (1850), Baal iires had blazed on the eve of the day since sacred to the saint, and the practice continued when its meaning passed away, and is even still retained in certain countries. With the ancients, accouling to the learned Gibelin, it originated in r* simple jcic de joie kindled the veiy moment the year began ; and the most ancient year we know of began in June. It aftei wards becamp a religious ceremony, attended, on the part of the Ammonites and Druids, with even human sacrifice ; and ju<=t a shade of tho.se terrific usages may be traced in the French regal ceremony— pi obablj as old as the monarchy-— called " Lo leu de U St. Jean.' 5 when a certain number of cats and a fox were annually burnt in the Place de Greve. "One cannot," says the author just now quoted, in his "Allegories Oiientales," "omit to mention those sacred fires kindled ab^ut midnight on the very moment of j solstice by the greatest part of vho ancient as of the modern nations. The people danced around them, and some leaped over them, and each, on leaving, took away a, firebiand, while the remains weie scattered to the wind, which, at the same time that it dispersed the ashes, was thought) to expel I every evil."