Midsummer or Midaëte is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, celebrated as part of the elven year. It marks the beginning of the sixth savaed in the elven calendar, Feainn.
Summer Shrines are erected on this day "to give praise to the sun and life, while acknowledging death's certainty". The shrines are supposed to draw power from the sun's heat and protect all living things. They are used by witches to bless crops and summon fires, as well as by witchers to increase the intensity of their Signs.
The "flower of the fern" blooms throughout forests on this night and naked girls, rubbed with adder's tongue fern, dance in dew-sprinkled clearings during the night.[1]