St John's Day aka Jaanipäev
Good morning everybody!
Even though, you might see tons of posts today about this event from Estonians, I would like to talk to you about my Jaanipäev.
So first off what even is this day/event and why it should be mentioned.
Jaanipäev (St John's Day for Christians) and Jaaniõhtu, also Jaanilaupäev (St John's Eve for Christians) are the most important days in the Estonian calendar, apart from Christmas. The short summer seasons with long days and brief nights hold special significance for the people of Estonia. Jaanipäev is celebrated on the night between June 23 and 24, a few days after the summer solstice, when night seems to be non-existent.
source
There is a lot of fuzz going around the festive and it's pretty much just free days from work for Estonians, this year we were unlucky tho, as it landed on the weekend. Nonetheless you could also say, that over 50% of adults are drunk during these days. It's like a tradition of some sort.
Also a thing that is said to give you power and luck for the entire year is jumping over the bonfire. I did jump over it, but only when it had been burning for a couple of hours already and there wasn't a really big flame going.
this isn't me but I'm pretty sure I looked like this
Pretty much what we did this year, was that we stayed at my girlfriends parents friends house, we were just grilling, drinking a bit and then when the time was correct, we jumped over the bonfire. Pretty chill, no big party this year, we were supposed to have something with a couple of friends, but we didn't want to drive far because the weather was supposed to be really bad and the forecast told that it's going to be raining really bad.
The party wasn't boring or anything and we had some fun, but I really missed my friends and I hope we can work something out next year.
There was one good thing about it, lucky for us it didn't rain, but nonetheless the "party" ended pretty early.