Also called Ivan Kupala wreaths, puszczanie wianków, Wianki
On midsummer night, unmarried young women weave flower wreaths, often with a candle, and set them on a river. How the wreath floats tells of love and marriage in the year ahead.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Never float a lit candle where fires are banned, near dry reeds, or on fast water; you can float the wreath unlit. Stay off slippery banks and do not wade after a wreath.
Girls float wreaths while young men try to catch them; a man who catches a girl's wreath is said to be meant for her. The night also includes jumping over bonfires and searching for the fern flower.
Uses: periwinkle, basil, candle
In Poland the night is called Sobótka or St. John's Night. Kochanowski's Renaissance poem describes village girls singing by the bonfires. In Kraków the wreath floating on the Vistula became a civic festival, run by the city since 1992.
Uses: wreath, candle
Some regions read a sinking wreath as illness or death within the year rather than mere delay. Leftover wreaths were sometimes kept to heal, or to guard gardens and fields from hail and pests.
Kupala Night is the Slavic midsummer festival, held on the eve of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. It blends pre-Christian solstice customs of fire and water with the church calendar, so it falls on 23 to 24 June, or 6 to 7 July where the Julian calendar is kept. Bonfire jumping, bathing in dew, searching for the mythical fern flower and floating wreaths are the best-known rites.
Wreaths stood for maidenhood, and the custom of reading them on water was recorded in detail by 19th-century folklorists in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. In Poland, Jan Kochanowski's 1586 song cycle on Sobótka shows the bonfire night already old. Kraków's Wianki festival on the Vistula grew into a patriotic event under Austrian rule and is still held today, now with concerts and fireworks alongside the floating wreaths.
Peel an apple in one unbroken strip, throw it over your shoulder, and read the letter it makes on the floor as the initial of a future partner.
On the night of 20 January, a person goes to bed without supper after a small rite with pins and a prayer, hoping to see a future sweetheart in a dream.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
