Summer Solstice

• The Midsummer Fire Festival in ancient pagan and naturalistic religions across the Western World corresponds to the summer solstice, the day or week (depending on the length of the celebration) during which the summer reaches its apex; until the summer solstice the sun spends more time in the sky every day, after the solstice the sun spends less time in the sky every day. Because ancient peoples such as the Celts of Western Europe associated the sun with life giving gods and entities, the sun's transition from being more prominent in the sky to being less prominent was considered an event of great mythic significance. The Golden Bough, a 1922 book by Sir George Frazer about pagan legends, mythology, ritual and magic, talks about the fear early pagan sun-worshipers may have had towards the summer solstice and the resulting decline of the life-bringing light -- "Such a moment could not but be regarded with anxiety by primitive man..."
  
  

Ancient Fire Festivals

• For those ancient cultures, such as the Germanic tribes and the Celts, who believed that the sun was either a representation of or the ultimate life bringer itself, the Midsummer Fire Festival was a gathering of primitive, superstitious beings attempting to sustain the life-giving energy of the sun throughout the latter-half of the year. Frazer writes in his book that a primitive being "may have fancied that he could help the sun in his seeming decline --- could prop his failing steps and rekindle the sinking flame of the red lamp in his feeble hand." For that reason, the Midsummer fire festival involved great numbers of torches, bonfires and celebrations of light.
  
  

Modern Midsummer's Festivals

• Although humans as a race now understand that earth-bound activities such as festivals and bonfires have no effect on the earth's rotation around the sun or influence upon the world's seasons, modern pagan and traditionalist celebrators continue to hold Midsummer's Fire Festivals across the western world to celebrate life in the tradition of their ancestors. Modern Witch, a website for Wiccan and other pagan worshipers living in the technologically developed world of modern days, encourages celebrants today to "have a party and make some happy memories."
  
  

Another Modern Version of the Midsummer's Fire Festival

• Another modern revival of the ancient tradition of Midsummer Fire Festivals can be seen in the popular video game World of Warcraft. Like many other popular massively-multiplayer online role playing games, World of Warcraft has a yearly celebration event during the summer months in which players can earn special prizes. Unlike other games, however, the World of Warcraft summer festival event is a true Midsummer Fire Festival that involves players running around the virtual world of Azeroth to light celebratory bonfires and vanquish ice monsters. The Wowhead site, an information repository for the World of Warcraft game, writes that "there are a number of things to do during the Midsummer Fire Festival -- visit bonfires, toss flaming torches or battle rogue elemental spirits!"