It is Midsummer Day--and as beautiful as its name.
What did you think of the traditions Rose and Cassandra had on Midsummer's eve? Were they just schoolgirl games or something more important?
We were always fascinated that such a tiny flame could make the twilight seem deeper and so much more blue--we thought of that as the beginning of the magic.
By the time Simon and Cassandra leave the mound to go to Scoteney for supper she says,
I stood at the top of the steps for a moment, trying to capture the feelings I usually have on Midsummer Eve--for I had been too occupied in entertaining Simon to think about them before. And suddenly I knew that I had been right in fearing this might be my last year for the rites--that if I ever held them again I should be "playing with the children."
Did that surprise you? What do you think made her want to abandon them? Did she have a premonition about what the rest of the night would hold?
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4 comments:
It is Midsummer Day today! Clever girl.
I loved the sisters' rituals. They really captured that pagan lust that kids have for summer evenings in general, but particularly for special ones.
I was a little surprised that Cassandra mentioned it would be the last one. But then the book had a tone of "putting away childish things," because they were growing up and drifting apart and having singular adult experiences. She even quit talking in the mannequin Miss Blossom's voice. She looked at me most reproachfully, then put a sealskin jacket over her blue blouse, turned off all the lights, and went out into the night closing the door behind her ... And I knew she was gone forever.
I don't think Cassandra wanted to abandon these things. I think she just became preoccupied, like teenagers do, with other issues. When she's older maybe she'll realize that all that growing-up stuff was for the birds and reclaim some of her youthful activities with fresh awareness (sort of like how I imagined Dodie Smith must have done when she wrote "The Hundred and One Dalmatians.")
Did she have a premonition? Maybe she did. I think she was surprised to see Simon, but, yeah, from the reader's point of view maybe something was in the air, so to speak.
I suppose the comparison with Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" is inevitable — where the boy falls for more than one girl under a spell of enchantment but the next day it's as though the magic of last night were a dream. That's what Cassandra's up against.
I was very drawn to those kinds of ceremonies when I was a kid. My friends and I were always keen on lighting fires and reciting various incantations about friendship or broken hearts or putting the past behind us. We loved ouija boards and anything vaguely magical and pagan. And then - poof! - we grew out of it. It suddenly seemed silly and juvenile.
Yes! I loved those parts of your diaries, especially the late-night fire rituals. Flames hold such power — for kids and pagans! I was telling AEL about your diaries during our Midsummer feast Tuesday. They contain a lot of Cassandra's sensibilities.
You and Sarah also had those highly ritualized gift exchanges! And you were always taping something or writing it down, like the experience gained in meaning if it were memorialized in some fashion.
Yes, we ritualized everything! It lent a sense of importance to everything we did.
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