6 Sexy, Romantic, and Slightly Crazy Traditions to Celebrate the Summer Solstice Today!
Things are about to get really hot, you guys. It’s the first day of summer, also known as the summer solstice: It’s the longest day of the year, and it’s associated with drinking, fertility, and, naturally, lots and lots of sex.
In fact, so much sex that a Swedish expert says there are a whole lot of children born nine months after Midsummer, the Scandinavian holiday celebrated today. So if you’re feeling a little frisky today, join the rest of the world and get busy. (Just take precautions if you don’t want an arrival in nine months!)
And there are other ways to celebrate the occasion besides boozing and sexing, but they also tend to center around romance. Here’s a list of some of the funny little traditions, rounded up by CNN, that various cultures have used to ring in summer lovin’.
If a single woman eats something very salty during Midsummer, she’ll dream of her future husband.Another Scandinavian tradition for single women: They would collect several different kinds of flowers and sleep with them under their pillows in order to dream of their future husbands.Greece has a similar tradition wherein unmarried woman would place a personal belonging in a pot and leave it under a fig tree overnight, and…you guessed it, dream of their future husbands. For bonus points, the women in the village would gather the next day to predict the romantic fortunes of the single women, and evidently, the older ladies come up with downright dirty rhymes. I love it.After the single women have determined their fortunes, the men join in the celebration, and everyone attempts to jump over a bonfire. It’s said that if you succeed three times, you’ll have a wish granted, and also that men like to show off for women by building the biggest fires to leap through. Um, hot? Like, literally.In Poland, young unmarried woman used to float floral wreaths in the river, and bachelors on the other side would try to catch them. The man and woman would then become a couple once the wreath was caught.Additionally, Polish couples would leap through the flames of a bonfire while holding hands, and if they didn’t let go, it meant their love would last.
Fascinating, right? I don’t really get the obsession with dreaming about your future husband—I mean, just a dream? I want to meet the dude already!—but I guess there are worse things than a good dream. Hopefully it’s of the sexy variety. At any rate, please don’t try to bonfire jumping at home, particularly when combined with drinking. Summer love should be hot without involving second-degree burns.
Does the start of summer make you feel a little frisky?
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