Calendar of Events

All times' Midsummer

Date
Organised by
Country
Denmark

- Performance of four times - who gets lit the fire and what was midsummer fire to the 1800s, the Viking Age, Iron Age and Stone Age? Discover how ages meet and see who wins the right to light the midsummer bonfire.

In the valley in front of the Iron Age Village Lethra midsummer bonfire is lit with fire steel and tinder as they did 2000 years ago. But before the Iron Age farmer's faces, lighting the fire is disturbed by visitors from the Stone Age, Viking Age and the 1800s. Each time has its own idea of how midsummer must be celebrated and what fire symbolizes.

(Midsummer or St. Hans' evening is one of the year's turning points. If the celebration is lost in the mists of time, we know that since the Stone Age, the sun's moving through the year has been hallowed in stone monuments and rituals all over the world).
The fire is ignited by the winner at 19:00h followed by community singing of Midsummer songs and the Land of Legends traditional midsummer song "lygtemandens sang".