Cinquefoil, campion, lupine and foxglove nod on your doorstep; Nutkarose, salal bells, starflower and bleeding-heart hide in the woods,fully green now. Litha has come, longest day of the year, height of thesun. Of old, in Europe, Litha was the height too of pagan celebrations,the most important and widely honored of annual festivals.

Fire, love and magick wreathe 'round this time. As on Beltaine inIreland, across Europe people of old leaped fires for fertility and luckon Midsummer Day, or on the night before, Midsummer Eve, according toFunk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology andLegend. Farmers drove their cattle through the flames or smoke or ranwith burning coals across the cattle pens. In the Scottish Highlands,herders circumnabulated their sheep with torches lit at the Midsummerfire.

People took burning brands around their fields also to ensure fertility,and in Ireland threw them into gardens and potato fields. Ashes from thefire were mixed with seeds yet to plant. In parts of England countryfolk thought the apple crop would fail if they didn't light theMidsummer fires. People relit their house fires from the Midsummerbonfire, in celebration hurled flaming disks heavenward and rolledflaming wheels downhill, burning circles that hailed the sun at zenith.

Midsummer, too, was a lovers' festival. Lovers clasped hands over thebonfire, tossed flowers across to each other, leaped the flamestogether. Those who wanted lovers performed love divination. InScandinavia, girls laid bunches of flowers under their pillows onMidsummer Eve to induce dreams of love and ensure them coming true. InEngland, it was said if an unmarried girl fasted on Midsummer Eve and atmidnight set her table with a clean cloth, bread, cheese and ale, thenleft her yard door open and waited, the boy she would marry, or hisspirit, would come in and feast with her.

Magick crowns Midsummer. Divining rods cut on this night are moreinfallible, dreams more likely to come true. Dew gathered Midsummer Everestores sight. Fern, which confers invisibility, was said to bloom atmidnight on Midsummer Eve and is best picked then. Indeed, any magickalplants plucked on Midsummer Eve at midnight are doubly efficacious andkeep better. You'd pick certain magickal herbs, namely St. Johnswort,hawkweed, vervain, orpine, mullein, wormwood and mistletoe, at midnighton Midsummer Eve or noon Midsummer Day, to use as a charm to protectyour house from fire and lightning, your family from disease, negativewitchcraft and disaster. A pagan gardener might consider cultivatingsome or all of these; it's not too late to buy at herb-orientednurseries, the Herbfarm outside Fall City the chief of these and awonderful place to visit, if a tad pricey. Whichever of these herbs youfind, a gentle snip into a cloth, a spell whispered over, and you have acharm you can consecrate in the height of the sun.

In northern Europe, the Wild Hunt was often seen on Midsummer Eve,hallooing in the sky, in some districts led by Cernunnos. Midsummer'sNight by European tradition is a fairies' night, and a witches' nighttoo. Rhiannon Ryall writes in West Country Wicca that her coven,employing rites said to be handed down for centuries in England's WestCountry, would on Midsummer Eve decorate their symbols of the God andGoddess with flowers, yellow for the God, white for the Goddess. Thecoven that night would draw down the moon into their high priestess, andat sunrise draw down the sun into their high priest. The priest andpriestess then celebrated the Great Rite, known to the coven as the Riteof Joining or the Crossing Rite.

Some of Ryall's elders called this ritual the Ridencrux Rite. They toldhow formerly in times of bad harvest or unseasonable weather, the HighPriestess on the nights between the new and full moon would go to thenearest crossroads, wait for the first stranger traveling in thedistrict. About this stranger the coven had done ritual beforehand, toensure he embodied the God. The high priestess performed the Great Ritewith him to make the next season's sowing successful.

In the Middle Ages in Europe, traces of witchcraft and paganremembrances were often linked with Midsummer. In Southern Estonia,Lutheran Church workers found a cottar's wife accepting sacrifices onMidsummer Day, Juhan Kahk writes in Early Modern European Witchcraft:Centres and Peripheries, edited by Bengt Ankarloo and GustaveHenningsen. Likewise, on Midsummer Night in 1667, in Estonia'sMaarja-Magdaleena parish, peasants met at the country manor of ColonelGriefenspeer to perform a ritual to cure illnesses.

In Denmark, writes Jens Christian V. Johansen in another Early ModernEuropean Witchcraft chapter, medieval witches were said to gather onMidsummer Day, and in Ribe on Midsummer Night. Inquisitors in the MiddleAges often said witches met on Corpus Christi, which some years fellclose to Midsummer Eve, according to Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, byJeffrey Burton Russell. The inquisitors explained witches chose the dateto mock a central Christian festival, but Corpus Christi is no moreimportant than a number of other Christian holidays, and it falls near aday traditionally associated with pagan worship. Coincidence? Probablynot.

Anciently, pagans and witches hallowed Midsummer. Some burned for theirright to observe their rites; we need not. But we can remember the past.In solidarity with those burned, we can collect our herbs at midnight;we can burn our bonfires and hail the sun.

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Patchwork Merchant Mercenaries had its humble beginnings as an idea of a few artisans and craftsmen who enjoy performing with live steel fighting. As well as a patchwork quilt tent canvas. Most had prior military experience hence the name.

 

Patchwork Merchant Mercenaries.

 

Vendertainers that brought many things to a show and are know for helping out where ever they can.

As well as being a place where the older hand made items could be found made by them and enjoyed by all.

We expanded over the years to become well known at what we do. Now we represent over 100 artisans and craftsman that are well known in their venues and some just starting out. Some of their works have been premiered in TV, stage and movies on a regular basis.

Specializing in Medieval, Goth , Stage Film, BDFSM and Practitioner.

Patchwork Merchant Mercenaries a Dept of, Ask For IT was started by artists and former military veterans, and sword fighters, representing over 100 artisans, one who made his living traveling from fair to festival vending medieval wares. The majority of his customers are re-enactors, SCAdians and the like, looking to build their kit with period clothing, feast gear, adornments, etc.

Likewise, it is typical for these history-lovers to peruse the tent (aka mobile store front) and, upon finding something that pleases the eye, ask "Is this period?"

A deceitful query!! This is not a yes or no question. One must have a damn good understanding of European history (at least) from the fall of Rome to the mid-1600's to properly answer. Taking into account, also, the culture in which the querent is dressed is vitally important. You see, though it may be well within medieval period, it would be strange to see a Viking wearing a Caftan...or is it?

After a festival's time of answering weighty questions such as these, I'd sleep like a log! Only a mad man could possibly remember the place and time for each piece of kitchen ware, weaponry, cloth, and chain within a span of 1,000 years!! Surely there must be an easier way, a place where he could post all this knowledge...

Traveling Within The World is meant to be such a place. A place for all of these artists to keep in touch and directly interact with their fellow geeks and re-enactment hobbyists, their clientele.

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