Today (24th June) is taken to be the birthday of John the Baptist. In times gone by, it was tradition to get up before sunrise to harvest the herbs of St John, (plantain, mugwort, yarrow, vervain, corn marigold, dwarf elder, ivy, orpine and St John’s wort) which were then put into amulets to be placed above doorways and in cattle stalls. That evening, fires were lit and people walked through the smoke with their cattle and herbs which were sanctified and purified by the smoke.