This past week St. John’s Eve was celebrated in Poland and in Polonia worldwide.

A post from the Polish Culture website explains this custom using the words of the great poet Jan Kochanowski:

In Poland the Eve of St. John’s is fraught with miracles and magic. Animals talk to each other with human voices. The earth shows the enchanted riches in it’s depths, glowing with fires. In wild ravines the barren fern blooms. Certain plants take on magical properties. Flowers and grasses made into wreaths will forecast a maiden’s fate. Wreaths to which are fixed lighted candles are cast in the waters so that their courses may be followed. From the course and fate of the wreaths anguries of marriage are made, The special promise of St. John is youth, love and general fertility.

In Warsaw the custom was celebrated with gigantic wreaths of flowers on the Wisła.