Forgotten German Traditions for Summer Solstice and how I brought them back

Hey there, I hope you're all fine. As it was summer solstice this weekend and I saw all the videos of midsummer celebrations from Nordic YouTubers, I got curious if there also exist German traditions for that day, because I never noticed anyone celebrating it here. And what I found out during my research really blew my mind. There are actually a lot of different German and Bavarian traditions and the people in this country just forgot about them. So with this video, I want to bring them all back to life, because they are too magical to be forgotten. The first thing I did when I woke up on summer solstice was to go outside to the little river next to my parents' house. As the pagan Germanic customs got mixed with Christian traditions for that day, it was common to take a John's bath with reference to John the Baptist. It's passed down that in the pagan traditions, fire and water played an important role and as the church didn't manage to put them down during the Christianization, they put the day of John the Baptist on summer solstice and turned the celebrations into a tribute for him. The calm bath in running waters should wash away negative energies and give a special protection. It should be a mindful moment, spent in silence. After the bath, I put on my dirndl, because on a traditional celebration, you would also wear your ethnic clothes, right? If you're into girls and you ever come to the Oktoberfest, I want to inform you real quick what the position of the piney loop means. If it is on the right side, the woman is married or in a relationship. On the left side means she's single, so go for it. If it's in the middle, the girl is virgin or in a newer meaning, her relationship status is not your business. Finally, the loop on the back means waitress, widow or child. Another thing the old German cultures did on summer solstice was to collect seven different wild herbs and put them into a vase. Wild herbs should have special healing powers on John's day. If you have bad luck in your love life, there is also a custom to put a bunch of herbs under your pillow during the shortest night of the year. Then you will find the love of your life soon. In Bavaria, the traditional food for John's day, as summer solstice is also called here, are elderflower pancakes. All right, I've already filmed a video how to make them. If you're interested in the recipe and the health benefits of elderflowers, you can check that out. In the afternoon, we prepared everything for the evening celebrations. It's common to make a John's fire when it gets dark that should burn through the whole night to keep away demons that cause illness, crop failure and births of disabled children. To prevent all of this, the pagan custom was to handcraft small straw dolls and burn them in the fire. As they stand for everything bad that can happen during the biological development of living things. I made one doll for my harvest on my balcony and two for the two kids I wanna have one day. I mean, you can never tell. And then it was finally time to light the John's fire. The craziest tradition I found out about was the jump over the John's fire. As a test of courage, it should cleanse the soul from bad energies and prevent illness. This is insane, I think. What if you stumble? If a couple jumps together while holding hands, the old wisdom says that they will marry soon. I will not because my boyfriend was not with us that evening. The burning of the straw dolls is called Panselverbrennen in German. The song Germanic Forest you hear now is produced by my boyfriend Michael. I linked his Soundcloud and Bandcamp in the description box. I also want to inform you about my brand new Instagram account where we can connect if you want to. So I will also link that.