Country fairs are held with dancing and singing.

The festival is primarily a Celtic fire festival, representing the middle of summer, and the shortening of the days on their gradual march to winter.

Midsummer is traditionally celebrated on either the 23rd or 24th of June, although the longest day actually falls on the 21st of June.

The importance of the day to ancestors can be traced back many thousands of years, and many stone circles and other ancient monuments are aligned to the sunrise on Midsummer's Day. Probably the most famous alignment is that at Stonehenge, where the sun rises over the heel stone, framed by the giant trilithons on Midsummer morning.