The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-23
Curious Customs of
 St. Johns Eve

While St. John the Baptist is still
 widely commemorated on the festival
 of his nativity which falls on the 24th
 of June most of the quaint old GUS
 toms connected with the observance
 of St. Johns Eve are now almost ex- tinct, except in the remote rural sec
 tions of Ireland and England and parts of Europe In those districts which cling to the old traditions, many curious rites will be enacted to- night. In England the popular ap- pellation of the feast is midsummer Eve and Midsummer Day, and the ob- servance dates back to pagan times, although for many centuries it has been combined with the festival of the Nativity of St. John.
 Thousands still fondIy cling to the old belief that on the night preceding St. Johns Day the souls of all people leave their bodies and visit the spot where they are destined to give up the ghost. This not altogether pleasant superstition accounts for the fact that many peasants always make a might of it. and refuse to go to bed, while i their wives and children also keep open-eyed vigil until the dawn of St. ! Johns Day, having a natural preju- dice against permitting their spirits to make so dubious a journey. Another | superstition, now happily extinct, was | that those who sat up fasting in the church yard through the night would l see separations of all those who were | to die in the following year. Wild ! tales of these nocturnal ghostly visi- | tations were spread over the neigh | borhood every Midsummer Day, and many people worried themselves into ! their graves because of reports that their "spooks" were among the visit | ors to the graveyard.
 ! No festival of this sort is complete ! without providing ways and means for the maiden to discover the identity of | her future husband. The particular | rite to he followed at this time is to go without the evening meal, and at midnight. to lay a cloth and place upon 1t bread and cheese, then sit : ting down as if to eat If the out ! side door is left open, the future hus- ! band IS supposed to enter the room, | drink to his bride-to-be, and then, with a gallant bow. to retire. These visitors wero supposed to be appari- tions. conjured up by supernatural ! power. but there was often ground for suspicion that they were flesh-and- | blood young men who thus sought to l impose upon the credulity of the lady of their love. And often they succeed | ed.
 Mankind has always sought for some means to make the body invisi- ble. and it was long firmly believed that he who went forth on St. Johns | Eve and at midnight succeeded in catching some of the seed of the fern 1 in a plate would possess the magic | power of making himself invisible. | The seed of the fern was so small as : 10 be not easily visible, and perhaps ! this accounts for the occult properties | they were thought to contain. Tales | of young men who had succeeded in | their quest for the magic seed, and | had thus been able to witness sights | not intended for other eyes and to | penetrate into places closed to pry- ! ing persons, enjoyed a great popular | ity, and the engaging young liars who | manufactured such fancical accounts of imaginary experiences found many ! ready to believe their ingenious yarns