St. Hans Aften - Denmark alight

The Danes have a very practical attitude to having fun. 6 months almost to the day After Christmas they (and much of Scandinavia) celebrate the Festival of St Hans on 24th June with the Night (St. Hans Aften ) falling on the 23rd. (pic from Flika)

It supposedly represents the birthday of St. Hans, otherwise known as St. Johannes, the Danish name for St. John the Baptist the festival probably pre- dates Christian ritual and commonly is said to represent the Summer Solstice.

As well as Barbecues and other outdoor high jinks (often involving probably the best lager in the world) there is a tradition of visiting a spring in order to drink natural mineral water. In Zealand province they visit the Helene Spring in Tisvilde. King Christian is said toi have visited the spring in 1639 givng it a further dose of Royal Patronage.


There is also a legend that, Helene was a murdered Swedish princess whose body was mystically drawn out of the sea by a huge stone and left on the land near Tisvilde. When her body was being taken to nearby Tibirke Church. A spring magically appeared beneath the feet of the horses pulling the cart holding her body, and they refused to move another inch. When her body was taken off the cart to be carried, it fell into the ground by the spring and sank.

The spring close to Helene's grave became a kind of Lourdes, where desperate mothers hoped to wash away their baby's imperfections and others took a little bag of earth from the ground around the spring home with them.

Springs like Helene Spring were frequented right up until the First World War, when thepractice died out.

Decorating cows

Another tradition which has not survived is that of decorating cows with wreaths made of peonies and beech leaves around their harnesses. In the farming community of Vendsyssel, northern Jutland, St John's Wort - a flowering herb associated with the festival of St. Hans - was also popular for the cows' wreaths.

There would be a competition to see who had the best decorated cows. In some places farming lads would dress up too, and clad in their best white shirts, would race the trussed up cows. The winner would be crowned 'king', or in some villages 'emperor'. Whilst such nonsense has died off in Denmark such fun carries on in Germany, France and Holland.

In Switzerland the cows are decorated in the spring as they head up into the upland valleys - in the Ardennes in Southern France they decorate sheep.

in 1989 the Swiss started the cow Parade which has visited Wisconsinfn and Moscow - to prettify the streets. (see pic of cow sponsored by Newsweek in Moscow)


Wise trees

While farmers decorated cows in northern Jutland, in Lolland and Falster it was the trees that were decorated, just as we decorate our Christmas trees today. The favourite tree to honour at St. Hans was the 'wise tree', which was a tree where two parts of the trunk had grown together to create a hole. A popular tradition was to crawl through the hole in order to rid oneself of flaws or poor judgements. Some people would also leave a piece of clothing hanging on the tree, in the hope that a long-lasting sickness would leave the person and stay with the item of clothing.

In Switzerland the caws are decorate in the spring as they head up into the upland valleys - in the Ardennes in Southern France they decorate sheep.

in 1989 the Swiss started the cow Parade which has visited Wisconsinfn and Moscow - to prettify the streets. (see pic of cow sponsored by Newsweek in Moscow)

Burning the Witch

This year most folk will settle with a large bonfire intended to burn away all the evil spirits believed to be at their most active on Midsummer Night.

Putting a stuffed effigy of a witch on the top of the fire is a relatively new tradition first seen in Denmark around 1890. German immigrants popularised the tradition in the Kalundborg area in the 1920s, but was at first a mainly middle class, scholarly tradition.

No self-respecting St. Hans bonfire would be seen without it today.

Apparently , if a girl on this day picked 7 different kinds of flowers and puts them under her pillow, she would dream about her future husband that night.

Glædelig St. Hans!