Midsummer fest, part 2

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There were no buses to Lejre Research Center, so it was a good thing Selin was with us, as she was familiar with the area. We walked through four kilometers of slugs and baby frogs before we got there an hour later.

The longest day of the year has already come and gone but summer solstice was celebrated just yesterday. The other night was Sankt Hans aften or Saint John's Eve. From Wikipedia, in Denmark:

It is the day where the medieval wise men and women (the doctors of that time) would gather special herbs that they needed for the rest of the year to cure people.

It has been celebrated since the times of the Vikings, by visiting healing water wells and making a large bonfire to ward away evil spirits. Today the water well tradition is gone. Bonfires on the beach, speeches, picnics and songs are traditional, although bonfires are built in many other places where beaches may not be close by (i.e. on the shores of lakes and other waterways, parks, etc.). In the 1920s a tradition of putting a witch made of straw and cloth on the bonfire emerged as a remembrance of the church's witchburnings from 1540 to 1693 (but unofficially a witch was lynched as late as 1897). This burning sends the witch to Bloksbjerg, the mountain 'Brocken' in the Harz region of Germany where the great witch gathering was thought to be held on this day.

Holger Drachmann and P.E. Lange-Müller wrote a beautiful midsommervise (Midsummer hymn) in 1885 called "Vi elsker vort land..." ("We Love Our Land") that is sung at every bonfire on this evening.

The festivities were in Danish, so I could not understand what the woman performing was saying (something about an apple?). For an old tradition, you would think they would have already mastered the art of lighting huge bonfires, but no. It took a while for the wood to go ablaze.

As it was 1030pm and getting dark, we did what would have been unthinkable had Flora not been around: we hitchhiked to the station. We went into separate cars. It was a bit scary, but as there were four of us together, we were ok.

I slipped out of the train almost 1130pm (the rest went to Copenhagen) to catch up with Hao, who prepared dinner. We went singing aided largely by YouTube. Hung out outside the Blue Tower for a little chat before finally calling it a day.