Valdres Samband

One of the days all of Norway celebrates is jonsoks day. It is also called St. Hans day or mid-summer day, June 24th. Actually most of the observance takes place the evening before when "midtsommars-baler" (mid-summer bonfires) dot the countryside.

In the church calendar St. Hans or jonsok is dedicated to John the Baptist. As you can see his name is used in several variations. In Catholic times jonsok night was a night for a wake and our ancestors traveled to holy sites or to the old stave churches for midnight mass.

But the day was celebrated before Christianity was introduced. It was connected to the summer solstice. Children would wander about the woods and meadows gathering all kinds of flowers which they braided into long strands and wound about their heads. The adults tidied up the house and the surroundings. Flowers, greens and bushes were placed on window sills, over doors and in the fireplace. No special work was begun on jonsok eve for if you did you were certain of trouble.

Fire was important in the old days and people prayed to both fire and the sun. Fire had the ability to give the sun new power to heal and the jonsok fire was believed to keep illness away from men and animals in the summer. On the old primitive primstav calendar the day was somtimes marked wiht the carving of the sun.

Mid-summers. or jonsoks eve, is celebrated today. There may be a parade as people make their way to a gathering site. There are games for children, perhaps a tug of war for men, a dance for everyone. Certainly there is a pyramid bonfire after everyone's appetite has been satisfied with food from the grill and the lunch box.