Year after year within this happy grove,
our fellowship bans thee for a space.
Thine malevolence which would pursue us here
has lost its power under these friendly trees.
So shall we burn thee once again this night
and, with the flames that eat thine effigy,
we shall read the sign.
Midsummer sets us free!
7/15/00 “Cremation of Care” ceremony, from Dark Secrets
When we returned to the village, I recorded Mark’s gospel in my own voice for the Pirahãs to listen to. I then brought in a wind-up tape recorder to play the recording, and I taught the Pirahãs how to use it, which, surprisingly enough, some of the children did. Keren and I left the village and returned a few weeks later. The people were still listening to the gospel, with children cranking the recorder. I was initially quite excited about this, until it became clear that the only part of the book that they paid attention to was the beheading of John the Baptist. “Wow, they cut off his head. Play that again!”
Daniel Everett, Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes
The question would naturally arise as to why the celebration falls on June 24 rather than June 25 if the date is to be precisely six months before Christmas. It has often been claimed that the Church authorities wanted to “Christianize” the pagan solstice celebrations and for this reason advanced Saint John’s feast as a substitute. This explanation appears to be erroneous because in those centuries the solstice took place around the middle of June due to the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar. It was only in 1582, through the Gregorian calendar reform, that the solstice fell on June 23.
Therefore, a more likely reason why the festival falls on June 24 lies in the Roman way of counting, which proceeded backward from the Kalends (first day) of the succeeding month. Christmas was “the eighth day before the Kalends of January” (Octavo Kalendas Januarii). Consequently, Saint John’s Nativity was put on the “eighth day before the Kalends of July.” However, since June has only thirty days, in our present (Germanic) way of counting, the feast falls on June 24.[3]
Nevertheless, the significance of the feast falling around the time of the solstice is considered by many to be significant, recalling the words of John the Baptist with regard to Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Wikipedia, “Nativity of St. John the Baptist“
Happy Nativity of St. John the Baptist (the feast of whose beheading falls on August 29) and of Ambrose Bierce, Harry Partch, Fred Hoyle, Mercedes Lackey and Ariel Pink. On this day in 1374 (1+3+7+4 = 15) folks in Aachen, Germany busted moves that came to be known as St. John’s Dance or chorea imaginativa (as pegged by Paracelsus); and on this day in 1938, the Keystone State got its own little Tunguska when an olivine-hypersthene chondrite meteorite exploded over Chicora, allegedly killing a cow. On this day in 2009, I’m listening to Chick Corea’s Mad Hatter album. Chick has been nominated for 51 Grammy Awards, of which he has won… 15.
The next Pandemic dance night at the Brillobox will be on July 3.
It’s fun, but very loud. Bring earplugs.
Cuídate.
UPDATE, 8-3-09
Saw a nice bit of musical theater last night at the Nerve (under the Bloomfield Bridge) set in a small town whose residents have been overcome by a “dancing mania” for which explanations, outlandish and mundane, are advanced and then eliminated. The traveling four-performer troupe known as the Missoula Oblongata riffed on perennially popular themes like the horrors of war, the madness of crowds, love and loss with skill and originality, dropping insights without becoming preachy or losing dramatic momentum. For what it’s worth (I don’t get to the theater much, and so am an unqualified drama critic), I found the writing, music, set, props and performances to be delightful in their own respective rights and to coalesce just so, and I’d advise you to check these folks out if ever they dance through your town.