Sankt Hans Aften (2)

After our BBQ with Peter and the sky was getting slightly darker (remember this is the longest day of the year, and that is really long in Scandinavia. I remember when we got home around 11:00 the sky was still not very dark. Around 9-10 pm others celebrating the holiday at the garden area headed toward the sticks and brush that had been piled up for the bonfire.

To start off the fire people came up with small torches like you see in this picture (although we just watched).















Then you can see the fire got started.
















You may wonder what is on the top of the fire. Well thanks to wikipedia again, here's an explanation: in the 1920s a tradition of putting a witch made of straw and cloth (probably made by the elder women of the family on the bonfire emerged as a remembrance of the church's witch burnings from 1540 to 1693. This burning sends the "witch" away to Bloksbjerg, the mountain 'Brocken' in the Harz region of Germany where the great witch gathering was thought to be held on this day. Some Danes still regard the symbolic witch burning as inappropriate. Here is a picture of our witch up close...



















Once the fire is up and running, like in this picture...















Then some songs are sung. One of the well known ones by Danes was written In 1885 by Holger Drachmann called midsommervise (Midsummer hymn) called "Vi elsker vort land..." ("We Love Our Country") that is sung with a melody composed by P.E. Lange-Müller at every bonfire on this evening.














After singing a few songs one of the older members of the garden area told some stories and history of Sankt Hans Aften, although I got some of it (it was in Danish) I can't remember it so well... thats how it goes I guess!