Midsummer Ritual

At midsummer, a ritual was practiced, first pagan, but then later associated with St. John the Baptist, of tying dried brush to a wheel, setting it on fire, and rolling it down a hill to mark the summer solstice, and the day the sun declines from it's highest point in the zodiac. It is said that these fires were also used to purify the air. It was believed that noxious serpents infected the air and water at this season. People would also leap over fires to prove their purity.