Mainly in Estonia, but also in Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden, looking for fern flowers are done by couples who want to increase their good luck.
They believe the tradition of finding fern flowers on the night of 23 to 24 June to either bring wealth or another good fortune. The couples go deep into the woods to find the flowers and hopefully for them, they find a couple to bless their relationship.
The flower brings fortune to the person who finds it. In various versions of the tale, the fern flower brings luck, wealth, or the ability to understand animal speech.
However, the flower is closely guarded by evil spirits, and anyone who finds the flower will have access to earthly riches, which have benefited no one, so they leave the decision to pick the flower or leave it alone up to the individual.
In many places, the midsummer’s night on June 21st, the longest day (and the shortest night) of the year, is celebrated. In some countries, people make flower wreaths, but in some others, there is a peculiar tradition: searching for the fern flower.
A person looking for the fern flower might have to face mythical creatures such as witches, demons, or even devils. That’s why people prepared well when on the quest to find the fern flowers, for example by decorating their bodies with mugwort, or, in some versions, taking a rosary or a cross with them.
Like in many myths and legend, there is also the element of not being allowed to look back when taking the fern flower home. Last but not least, in some versions, they could not share the wealth that the fern flower provided with anyone, which reminds me of another legend from Warsaw, called the Golden Duck.
In the fern flower legend, a person most often a naughty boy is gifted immense wealth. He spends it entirely on himself but then realizes that not being able to help others is making hi miserable.
In the Fern flower legend, the boy can’t help his parents and in the Golden Dutch legend, he can’t give money to a poor old soldier. Several versions of the fern flower story say the boy realizes that nothing is more important than his bond with other people and the feeling of the community he gains from them.
While other legends tell how he is swallowed whole and never seen again. Ferns do not have flowers, although there might be some truth to this tale. Many flowering plants look very similar to ferns, and some of them do have flowers.
There are also so-called “flowering ferns.” Daphne and horsetail flowers look like they could be the source of the legend.
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