On St. John's night people engage in prognostication in an effort to learn the future. A girl braids a wreath, stands with her back against a tree and throws the wreath over her head trying to hook it on a branch. The number of times it takes to succeed represents the number of years before she weds. Wreaths are made and given girls' and boys' names. They are thrown into the water (preferably a stream). The ones that come together represent the boy and girl who will make a couple; if a wreath sinks, the person will soon die; if the wreath floats easily and does not snag on grasses or twigs, the person's life will be happy and easy.

Young men and women link arms and jump over the bonfire's dying embers. If their arms remain linked, they will wed; if they jump effortlessly, if the smoke does not cause their eyes to water and their shoes or clothing remain unsinged, everything will go well that year: love, happiness and wealth awaits them. If the smoke causes the eyes to tear, much hardship (tears) will have to be borne.

At a time when people relied in their daily lives more on folk medicine than on manufactured drugs, the eve of St. John's was vital for gathering medicinal plants. It was believed that witches destroyed the power of such plants on St. John's night, On the eve, women, children and older men (who had less farm work) went into the fields, bogs and forests to gather medicinal plants, enough to treat not only humans but also livestock all year. They picked camomile, centaury, marsh trefoil, wormwood, thyme/ valerian, fennel, mint, rue (people believed that the rue cured 99 illnesses), and other local medicinal plants.

The plants were carefully tied into bundles, dried, hung in the attic and later sorted and put away for winter. They were used in many ways: brewed as tea, immersed in whiskey, crushed and mixed with grease, etc.