Barnaby bright, Barnaby bright
Light all day and light all night.
The rhyme for this day shows that Barnaby is associated with the summer solstice. In the pre-Gregorian calendar, this holiday fell 11 days later and thus coincided with the solstice.
St Barnabas was invoked as a peacemaker. On his day, it was customary to deck churches and houses with Barnaby garlands of roses and sweet woodruff. Sometimes the garlands also included the pink ragged robin.
When Barnabas smiles both night and day
Poor Ragged Robin blooms in the hay
At St Barnabas, the scythe in the meadow.
St Barnaby also had a thistle named after him: St Barnabas’ Thistle (centaurea solstialis), the second name of which confirms his association with the solstice. This plant is also known as the Yellow Starthistle: it has a radiant yellow flower and yellow spikes.
In Denmark, this was the end of the contract year and masters and servants were free to renegotiate their contracts or part ways. It was also called The Devil’s Birthday
Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc, Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Book of Days, Oxford University Press, 2000
Kightly, Charles, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames & Hudson 1987
