On the evening of 23 June Dad, Mark and I went down to Hjerting beach to celebrate Sankt Hans Aften. In Denmark the midsummer solstice is named after St John (Sankt Hans) and is celebrated on the evening (aften) of the last quarter. In Viking times fires were lit near springs and wells, now everyone piles down to the local beach for a massive bonfire party.
In the 1920s people started putting an effigy of a witch on the top of the bonfire. The burning banishes the witch to Bloksbjerg, which apparently is somewhere in German.
Students about to graduate from high school traditionally burn their notes. Presumably re-takes are not big in Denmark.
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