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Bornholm Bonfire, Denmark, 1997

With the sky still aglow at 11 p.m. on Midsummer Eve, Danes build bonfires along the shore to burn effigies of witches, banishing evil spirits from the land. Singing songs and daring leaps across the dying embers completes the Midsummer Eve celebration, one of the country's most beloved traditions.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Civilized Denmark," July 1998, National Geographic magazine)

Photograph by Sisse Brimberg