The end of June feels like a threshold in many cultures. In Lithuania, it is the time of Joninės, also known as Rasos: the shortest night of the year, bonfires, wreaths, dew, herbs, and the search for the mythical fern blossom. In Japan, around a similar time, on June 30, Shinto shrines hold Nagoshi no Harae — summer purification rites. At first glance, it is a very different tradition: quieter, more ritualistic, taking place at shrines rather than beside bonfires on hilltops. Yet both celebrations speak to the same human need: to pause in the middle of the year, purify oneself, cross a symbolic boundary, and enter a new period with renewed strength.
Nagoshi no Harae, also known as summer purification, is a Shinto ritual intended to cleanse the misfortune, impurity, or spiritual burden that may have accumulated during the first half of the year, and to pray for health and safety for the remaining six months. According to Kyoto tourism sources, these rites take place throughout June, but they usually culminate on June 30. At that time, a large ring woven from grasses or reeds, called chinowa, is placed at the entrance to shrines. It is often larger than a person. Worshippers pass through it in a specific pattern — often resembling the shape of a figure eight — and then proceed to pray at the shrine.
This grass ring is the most important symbol of Nagoshi no Harae. It is not merely a decoration. By passing through the chinowa, a person symbolically leaves behind what has troubled them: illness, bad luck, exhaustion, mistakes, anxiety. In the Shinto tradition, “impurity” does not necessarily mean moral guilt in the Western sense. It can also refer to life’s disorder, fatigue, misfortune, or accumulated heaviness that must be ritually washed away or removed. For this reason, the custom is closer to renewal than to repentance.
In some shrines, another ritual is also performed: the use of hitogata, paper human-shaped figures. A person may write their name and age on such a figure, rub it against their body, or breathe onto it, as if transferring their impurity and misfortune into the paper substitute. Later, these figures are floated down a river, burned, or otherwise ritually disposed of. In the description of Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, it is emphasized that on the evening of June 30 these figures are released into the Nara no Ogawa stream, with the belief that the water carries away the impurities accumulated by the person.
Here we can already see the first clear bridge to Lithuanian Joninės. In Lithuania, water and dew are also extremely important. The Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia notes that water has long held special significance during Joninės: it was believed that dew gathered before sunrise had healing powers; people washed themselves with it, and on the eve or morning of the celebration they would bathe in rivers and lakes, hoping for health and protection from illness. In Japan, water washes away impurity through a shrine ritual; in Lithuania, dew and bathing bring vitality, beauty, and health. The religion and form differ, but the underlying logic is similar: at a moment of seasonal transition, water becomes more than just water.
Another closely related symbol is plants. At the center of Nagoshi no Harae stands the grass ring. In Lithuanian Joninės, vegetation is even more prominent: kupoliavimas, the gathering of herbs, wreath-making, and the healing and magical power of plants. The Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia states that one of the most important ancient Joninės rituals was kupoliavimas — the gathering of herbs from seven or nine fields. These herbs were believed to have healing and magical powers. The collected plants were kept at home and used for healing, protecting livestock, and fortune-telling.
Yet this is also where a difference becomes clear. In Lithuania, herbs are abundant, varied, and alive: they are woven into wreaths, gathered in meadows, hung in homes, dried for medicine, and used in divination. In Japan, the plant symbolism of Nagoshi no Harae is more concentrated in a single object — the ring through which one passes. The Lithuanian tradition unfolds through the meadow, song, night, and communal celebration; the Japanese one unfolds through shrine space, orderly movement, and a clear act of purification.
Joninės, or Rasos, in Lithuania is a summer solstice celebration, observed on June 24, with its rituals performed on the eve, June 23. Before Christianity, the festival was known as Kupolės or Rasos, and later became associated with the feast day of St. John the Baptist. Nagoshi no Harae is not a solstice festival in the direct sense, but it also takes place in the middle of the year. Its meaning is not the celebration of the longest day, but the purification that marks the end of the first half of the year. Thus, Lithuanian Joninės marks the fullness of nature, the power of the sun, and fertility, while Japanese Nagoshi no Harae marks the boundary between the first and second halves of the year.
The role of fire is also very different. In Joninės, fire is one of the central symbols: bonfires are lit on hills, people jump over them, sing beside them, and believe in their protective and renewing power. The Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia states that the symbols of Joninės are the Sun and fire, and that bonfires were associated with harvest, protection from illness, and protection from misfortune. Young people would sing, dance in circles, and jump over the flames. In Nagoshi no Harae, fire may appear in some shrine rituals, for example when hitogata figures are burned, but it is not the central element of the celebration. In Japan, the key action is to pass through the ring and be purified; in Lithuania, it is to be with fire, water, herbs, and dawn.
The food tradition is also interesting. In Kyoto, Nagoshi no Harae is associated with a sweet called minazuki — a triangular rice flour cake topped with sweet azuki beans. It is eaten on June 30 as a symbol of good fortune and protection from evil. According to the description of regional cuisine by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the triangular shape is associated with ice, which was believed to ward off the summer heat, while the red color of azuki beans was connected with driving away evil spirits. Lithuanian Joninės does not have one dominant ritual sweet of this kind, but it does include feasting, cheese, beer, communal gathering by the bonfire, and the congratulation of people named Jonas, Jonė, or Janina.
In summary, Nagoshi no Harae is not the Japanese version of Joninės, but it can be seen as a very interesting “relative” of Joninės in terms of timing and symbolism. Both traditions take place at the end of June, both speak about a liminal time, and both use plants and water as signs of purification, protection, and renewal. Yet their moods differ: Joninės is louder, more communal, full of fire, songs, divination, and the magic of the night; Nagoshi no Harae is more restrained, shrine-centered, focused on personal purification and calm preparation for the second half of the year.
One might put it this way: during Joninės, a Lithuanian goes into the meadow, weaves a wreath, jumps over a bonfire, and waits for the fern blossom; during Nagoshi no Harae, a Japanese person goes to a shrine, passes through a grass ring, and leaves behind the burden of the past half-year. In one tradition, a person seeks the sun, dew, and the miracle of a blooming night; in the other, cleanliness, silence, and a new beginning. But in both cases, nature becomes a mediator between everyday life and the sacred.