On the eve of Saint John‘s Day...

June the 23th, 2016

On the eve of Saint John‘s Day, we would like to share one interesting detail related to this festival. While reading 19th century literature, you will hardly find any hints as to celebrating somebody‘s birthday. But they did celebrate a name day: the higher the rank, the more splendid celebration. But... how about the birthday?.. – we kept wondering, until we connected two things in our minds, something generally known.

Most often, birthday and name day was the same thing. In the days gone by (most likely since early Middle Ages) in most European countries, including Lithuania, and some other parts of the world, people would not give the names they liked best to their children. They would give the name of the saint on whose day the child was born. It was believed that a saint safeguards and protects those born on their day. In more traditional societies, this custom was kept until the middle of the 20th century or, perhaps, even longer.

But today we rarely remember name days, and celebrate them even more rarely. However, Saint John‘s Day, being such a strategic point in the cycle of the year, still retains its connection with the old tradition and meaning of the name‘s day. We wish you a very nice celebration of Saint John‘s Day!