page_title: Bonfire
section_title: Poland
hierarchical_section_title: Bonfire / Regional traditions / Poland
caption_attribution_description: English: Midsummer fire at San river, Trepcza (Sanok), Poland Polski: Noc świętojańska nad Sanem
context_page_description: A bonfire is a large but controlled outdoor fire, used either for informal disposal of burnable waste material or as part of a celebration.
context_section_description: In Poland, bonfires are traditionally and still enthusiastic burned during Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Pentecost day and Saint John Night as Sobótki, ognie świętojańskie(Śląsk, Małopolska, Podkarpacie), Palinocka (Warmia, Mazury, Kaszuby) or Noc Kupały (Mazowsze and Podlasie) on 23/24 June.
  On 23 and 24 June, according to ancient custom, an immense number of Polish persons of both sexes repaired to the banks of the San (river), Vistula and Odra river, to consult Fate respecting their future fortunes, jumping through a fire on the Eve of Saint John's was a sure way to health. The leaping of the youths over fire (sobótka) must be a custom derived from remote antiquity. Jan Kochanowski, who died in 1584, mentions it in a song from an ancient tradition. Varro and Ovid relate, that in the Palilia, celebrated in honour of the goddess Pales, on 20 April, the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, the young Romans leaped over burning bundles of hay. In modern Italy, this kind of saltation is continued by the name of Sabatina, though Pope Sergius III prohibited it.
caption: Midsummer fire (sobótka) at San (river), (Poland).
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