Reply #1: The higher you jump over the fire

[LiberalEsto]

the taller your flax will grow. Or so I've heard.

I just came back from spending 2 weeks in Estonia visiting relatives. Unfortunately I had to fly home before Jaanipaev, but I've celebrated it at bonfires many times over the years. Estos have all kinds of Jaani songs and dances, as well as holiday foods such as home-made cheese.

Part of the celebration includes going to the sauna and getting cleaned and purified.
Estonians gather young birch branches, tie them into small bundles, soak them in buckets of water and use them in the sauna to lightly whip themselves and their companions. This supposedly brings any impurities in the blood to the skin surface so they can be sweated out.

I've read that in Latvia and Lithuania, the sun goddess Saule is honored at Jani.