Deuteronomy 12

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The laws which begin here are called The Book of the Covenant

    "The Feast of the Nativity of St. John [the Baptist] is set down in the Papal calendar for the 24th of June, or Midsummer-day. The very same period was equally memorable in the Babylonian calendar as that of one of its most celebrated festivals. It was at Midsummer, or the summer solstice, that the month called in Chaldea, Syria, and Phenicia by the name of 'Tammuz' began; and on the first day – that is, on or about the 24th of June – one of the grand original festivals of Tammuz was celebrated. [cited from Sabaean Philosophy by Stanley, p.1065].
    "For different reasons in different countries, other periods had been devoted to commemorate the death and the reviving of the Babylonian god; but this, as may be inferred from the name of the month, appears to have been the real time when his festival was primitively observed in the land where idolatry had its birth. And so strong was the hold that this festival, with its days were devoted to the great events connected with the Babylonian Messiah. . . .
    "When the Papacy sent its emissaries over Europe, towards the end of the sixth century, to gather in the Pagans into its fold, this festival was found in high favour in many countries. What was to be done with it? Were they to wage war with it? No. This would have been contrary to the famous advice of Pope Gregory I., that, by all means they should meet the Pagans half-way, and so bring them into the Roman Church [Bower,  Lives of the Popes, vol. ii. p. 523]. The Gregorian policy was carefully observed; and so Midsummer-day, that had been hallowed by Paganism to the worship of Tammuz, was incorporated as a sacred Christian festival in the Roman calendar."
    . . .
    "To make the festival of the 24th of June, then, suit Christians and Pagans alike, all that was needful was just to call it the festival of Joannes; and thus the Christians would suppose that they were honouring John the Baptist, while the Pagans were still worshipping their old god Oannes [note the similarity of this name to Jonnaus], or Tammuz. . . . The fête of St. John begins exactly as the festal day [of Tammuz] began in Chaldea [where Babylon was].
    "Now, if we examine the festivities themselves, we shall see how purely Pagan they are, and how decisively they prove their real descent. The grand distinguishing solemnities of St. John's Eve are the Midsummer fires. These are lighted in France, in Switzerland, in Roman Catholic Ireland, and in some of the Scottish isles of the West, where Popery still lingers. They are kindled throughout all the grounds of the adherents of [the church of] Rome, and flaming brands are carried about corn-fields. . . .  Every fête is marked by distinct features peculiar to itself. That of St. John is perhaps, on the whole, the most striking. Throughout the day the poor children go about begging contributions for lighting the fires  of Monsieur St. Jean, and towards evening one fire is gradually followed by two, three, four; then a thousand gleam out from the  hilltops, till the whole country glows under the conflagration. Sometimes the priests light the first fire. . . .
    "Seats are placed close to the flaming piles for the dead, whose spirits are supposed to come there for the melancholy pleasure of listening once more to their native songs. . . . Fragments of the torches are preserved as spells against thunder and nervous diseases. . . .
    'On that great festival of the Irish peasantry, St. John's Eve,' says Charlotte Elizabeth, describing a particular festival which she had witnessed, 'it is the custom at sunset to kindle immense fires throughout the country, built like our bonfires. . . .  When the fire burned for some hours and got low, an indispensable part of the ceremony commenced. Every one present of the peasantry passed through it, and several children were thrown across the sparkling embers. . . . Here . . . was the old Pagan worship of Baal, if not Moloch too, carried openly and universally in the heart of a nominally Christian country, and by millions professing the Christian name!'" (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pp. 114-116, 1916, 1943, 1959 - not copyrighted). See on v31 above.