Gawiński’s Sobótki

The longest night of the year – so-called “Saint John’s” Eve – was also an occasion to perform ancient rites. Those typically involved making wreaths and garlands for the ladies followed by late night gatherings and the setting of fires usually in the fields (going ku-pole) or on hilltops. Next came the dancing around these fires. Young women lead those gatherings and young men joined later. They would then couple up and dance around the fires and, often, jump through them – sometimes together. Some of the older records (Lucas of Great Kozmin) also mention dances with swords (“I recall that in youth I read in a certain chronicle that there were in Poland Gods and from those days to our times such rites come that, young women [in his time] dance with swords, as if in offering to the pagan Gods, and not to [the] God, as well as [dances of] young men with swords and sticks, which they then hit about…”). (see here).

The wreaths would typically be made of bylica (artemisia or mugwort) though other plants were utilized as well, including  piołun (common wormwood also a type of artemisia), dziurawiec (Saint John’s wort), leszczyna branches (hazel), mięta (mint), ruta (ruta or rue), biedrzeniec (pimpinella) or czarny bez (black elderberry) were seen as having beneficial powers on this day. Of course, the most coveted was the fern flower – a mythical flower much like the four-leafed clover. Women would take venture naked into the woods, most often with their male companions, in search of this flower. As I understand it, few had found the flower though some had had an altogether good time nevertheless.

In a related custom, the wreaths (wianki – pronounced “vianki”) would often end up being placed on the surface of local rivers and sent gently floating with the current. Frequently, they would also carry an attached candle so that they remained visible from afar. While women would float the wreaths on water, young men would light small fires on the river banks. These custom continued even into the 18th and 19th centuries when inhabitants in Warsaw would gather on the banks of the Vistula to send their wreaths on the way to the sea while cheering them on from the local bridges. Local potentates would also give out small gifts to the public on the occasion and the common people would exchange presents amongst themselves. The last Polish king – Stanisuav Poniatowski – was recorded attending these events. Sometimes the plants were forgotten and other means were used to float a fire; for example, in Pomerania, local inhabitants would place small barrels full of tar on the water surface and set them on fire, watching them head out to the Baltic.

Such gatherings were known in Poland as sobótki (diminutive for “sabbaths”) or palinoce (pronounced “palinotze“) aka palinocki (pronounced “palinotzki”) (that is “burning nights”). The rituals are alluded too already in the 11th century by Thietmar who describes Mount Ślęża in Silesia. That same mountain would be referred to as sobotka in the 13th century. The clergy typically bemoaned such pre-Christian relicts and forbade them as we have described previously:

• Bishop Andrzej Łaskarz Statutes (1420s): “Prohibit too the nightly dances that take place during days of the sabbath (sobotki or kupalnocki in the summer) and on the days of the Saints John the Baptist and Saints Peter and Paul, for there are fornications and adultery and incest committed in those times.” (see here); or

• Royal Decree of Casimir IV (1468): “populi multitudo sexus utriusque assolet de consuetudine confluere, ubi tubarum, timpanorum. fistularum, aliorumque musicorum generum exercicia adhibentur, chorearum ceterorumque jocorum plausus exercentur…” (see here); or

• Marcin of Urzędów (circa 1500 – 1573): “For this reason these pagan [maidens] dedicated this herb to her and when the day [of Diana/Artemis] was celebrated some hung it up around houses while others girded it on: and this was done on the twenty fourth day of the moon [month] June, on our day of Saint John: and so they [the ladies] lit fires in the night, danced, praying and honoring the devil.  [And] this pagan custom they [women] refuse to forsake to this day, for so they make offerings of this herb hanging it and girding it on.  And they honour holidays of this devil [i.e., Diana/Artemis] by making sabaths [sobotki], burning fires, kindling fires with planks [sticks], so that there should be the right devilish holiness: there they sing devilish songs, obscene/filthy while dancing.” (see here);

Many Polish writers wrote about these customs quite affectionately – among them the 16th century poet Jan Kochanowski and the 17th century poet Jan Gawiński.

Kochanowski wrote about the custom in his “Saint John’s Song About Sobótka” which features twelve maidens (see this website for the whole thing in Polish) whereas Jan Gawiński wrote the following in his twelve months’ compilation (featured in June of course):

“Saint John the Baptist hath come, hence they burn the sabbaths and round these they sing and dance the village lasses. Don’t abolish their rites. What has come to us through the ages and withstood centuries, must continue through the ages yet.”

Jan święty Chrzciciel przyszedł, więc palą sobótki a koło nich śpiewając skaczą wiejskie młódki. Nie znoście ich zwyczajów. Co nas z wiekiem doszło i wiekom się ostało, trzeba by w wiek poszło. 

Curiously, in describing the customs of the month of December, Gawiński speaks of the daughter (Mary) giving birth to the father (Jesus). This convoluted concoction also smacks of pre-Christian beliefs where he Earth (Demeter, perhaps Marzanna-Ceres) gave birth to Jasion (Iasion) who then – in June (that is on “Saint John’s” Eve) would fertilize the same Earth before he withered in the winter only to be reborn (with the “invincible” Sun) in December again. Once again I recommend James Frazer’s “The Golden Bough”.