Garlands (Polish ‘wianki’)

Kupalnocka has been most popular for its long-held tradition of laying garlands on water. Telling one’s fortune from a garland, the symbol of maidenhood, was probably a separate tradition, not really connected with Midsummer Night; it was meant only for bachelors and bachelorettes as it concerned marriage and anticipated love. On that magic night marriageable girls wove garlands and lay them on river waters; thus their fortune was told: whether they were to be married soon or become spinsters. Initially the garlands were made of hay with interwoven fresh flowers; the hay was set on fire before the garland was put on the water. In later days girls wove garlands of herbs and wild flowers and put a candle inside. A Midsummer bouquet was to be made of the seven magic plants: mugwort, sundew, burdock, rue, mullein and Saint-John’s wort. They were to keep evil spirits away, protect the maker from illnesses and guarantee a good marriage.
If a garland was floating evenly on the water and the candle was burning brightly, or if the garland was recovered by the maker’s beloved, her fortune was favourable. If the garland was going round in circles, kept floating near the river bank, became tangled in water plants or sank, it augured love complications, misery, bad luck, the end of love, or even death. For young people this night was sometimes the only chance to choose one’s partner freely, without go-betweens or having to obey one’s parents’ will. Nowadays it is just a game and hardly anybody treats it as fortune telling.


Barbara Błońska (monthly 'Karnet')