Steiner School celebrates midsummer

Staff, parents and pupils from the Steiner School at Rathargaid held a traditional St John’s Day celebration in the school field on Midsummer Day.



The celebration included a bonfire, music and dancing, and a picnic, and involved both the Kindergarten and Main School.



The celebration of the summer solstice can be on June 21, the longest day of the year, or on June 24, the official calendar Midsummer Day, als the Feast of St John the Baptist.



Ancient peoples, watching the sun reach its highest point at this time, lit evening bonfires to encourage it to shine and ripen their crops.



In many parts of Ireland people still light bonfires on St John’s Eve and on Midsummer Day.

For many people it is also associated with fairies, whence the characters in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Brian Byrne.