St John's Eve

It's Midsummer Eve, although you wouldn't know it from the torrential rain currently pouring down outside my window. I had plans to go gathering roses tonight (if you pick a rose on Midsummer Eve, it will last until Christmas) but I'll have to be content with the dried petals I already have. This site has some nice suggestions for Midsummer customs and wikipedia has an exhaustive list of traditions around the world, but the ones I like best are (of course) the Scandinavian and the English ones. Thus, I am scattering rose petals, lighting a candle - a bonfire is not very practical in student accommodation, and in any case the citations here suggest people have been burning candles on St John's Eve for at least five hundred years - and listening to this song:



Hark, says the fair maid, the nightingale is singing,
The larks they are ringing their notes up in the air.
Small birds and turtledoves on every bough are building,
The sun is just a-glimmering; arise, my dear.

Rise up, my fair one, and pick your love a posy,
It is the finest flower that ever my eyes did see.
It's I will bring you posies, both lily-white pinks and roses;
There's none so fair a flower as the lad I adore.

Lemady, Lemady, you are a lovely creature,
You are the fairest flower that ever my eyes did see.
I'll play you a tune all on the pipes of ivory
So early in the morning before break of day.

Arise and pick a posy, sweet lily-pink and rosy,
It is the finest flower that ever I did see.
Small birds and turtledoves on every bough are building,
The sun is just a-glimmering; arise, my dear.


This is a Midsummer song because it's a version of this Midsummer Carol. 'Lemady' is probably not a person but a misunderstanding of lemman, Middle English 'lover, sweetheart' (on which see this post). It has nothing to do with lemons...