Every summer solstice, all those European pagans celebrate their Midsummer Festivals. They are often beautiful celebrations.
From Austria to Russia, it’s an occasion for joy and celebration. In Sweden, beautiful girls dance and sing dressed in fairy clothes, their blonde hair braided in beautiful patterns. In Spain, people burn old stuff in beaches and fields, getting away with their past and jumping over the fires to clean themselves of bad spirits. And in Poland, thousands of lights float through the skies. Each of these celebrations is beautiful, but I think the Polish get the prize for the most fleeting view:
These images are from the city of Poznan, Poland, where 11,000 lanterns took the skies like a swarm of glowing jellyfishes, pushed into the air by the flames burning inside their nimble bodies. Definitely one for the list of places and times to visit before I die. [YouTube, YouTube and YouTube via Core77]