St. John's Day
(aka Midsummer; The Nativity of St. John The
Baptist)
This page was created by Marc Carlson
It was last edited 9 June 2004
These are listed separately, as the historical
treatment of Midsummer is one of the greatest faerie riddles I can imagine,
but St. John's and Midsummer should be
the same holiday.
Interpretations
-
Beginning of the reign of the Holly King. St. John the Baptist is
the 'the Oak King' (compared to his balance Jesus, the 'Holly King'), and
many statues show him with horns (as with Moses). He had a strong
connection to the Wilderness, and some of his more exotic medieval iconography
may be related to the common interpretation of the Jack in the Green, the
Woodwose, the Wild Man of the Wood, the Greenman.