St. John's Day
Every year, the DC-Baltimore Lithuanian Youth Association organizes the traditional Lithuanian midsummer's festival of Jonines, or Rasos Svente, traditionally celebrated on St. John's Day (June 24th).
For the organizers, the celebration begins early in the morning, when a strong and hard-working group comes to the park, where the festivities are scheduled to begin later in the evening. Everybody goes to work: some, building gates and winding green garlands around them, others build a wooden scarecrow, still others put the trunk of a long-dead tree, with lots of branches, steadfastly in the ground. Later on in the evening, unmarried girls will attempt to throw their wreaths on the branches, to see how soon they'll get married and how good their husband will be.
Toward the evening, when everything is built and prepared, a big group of people come, not only from Washington and Baltimore, but from other areas, as well. The girls make wreaths, and everyone talks with old and newly made friends.
The real celebration begins when the organizers start to explain the traditions of the St. John's Day celebrations. They burn the scarecrow with all of the bad feelings and evils of the past year, the participants jump over the fire and the girls send their wreaths floating down the river with glowing candles in the middle. And, of course we search long and hard for the fern blossom. If you meetsomeone who has been to the St. John's Day celebration, organized by the DC-Baltimore Lithuanian Youth Association, and they're really lucky and happy, then know that they were the one, who found the blossom.
After the celebration ends, the participants go home with longing in their hearts for the next year's celebration. They can honestly say that this is a wonderful celebration. They leave, already having decided that they will meet again next year and will again celebrate the magical night of St. John's Day.