Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

in the Northern Hemisphere, summer solstice begins on Jun 21 2010 at 7:28 AM EDT

in the UK, on June 21, 2010 at 11:28 UT

Sol + stice derives from a combination of Latin words meaning "sun" + "to stand still." As the days lengthen, the sun rises higher and higher until it seems to stand still in the sky.

As a major celestial event, the Summer Solstice results in the longest day and the shortest night of the year. The Northern Hemisphere celebrates in June, but the people on the Southern half of the earth have their longest summer day in December.

Early Celebrations

Awed by the great power of the sun, civilizations have for centuries celebrated the first day of summer otherwise known as the Summer Solstice, Midsummer (see Shakespeare), St. John's Day, or the Wiccan Litha.

The Celts & Slavs celebrated the first day of summer with dancing & bonfires to help increase the sun's energy. The Chinese marked the day by honoring Li, the Chinese Goddess of Light.

Perhaps the most enduring modern ties with Summer Solstice were the Druids' celebration of the day as the "wedding of Heaven and Earth", resulting in the present day belief of a "lucky" wedding in June.

Today, the day is still celebrated around the world - most notably in England at Stonehenge and Avebury, where thousands gather to welcome the sunrise on the Summer Solstice.

Pagan spirit gatherings or festivals are also common in June, when groups assemble to light a sacred fire, and stay up all night to welcome the dawn.


Summer Solstice Fun Facts

Pagans called the Midsummer moon the "Honey Moon" for the mead made from fermented honey that was part of wedding ceremonies performed at the Summer Solstice.

Ancient Pagans celebrated Midsummer with bonfires, when couples would leap through the flames, believing their crops would grow as high as the couples were able to jump.

Midsummer was thought to be a time of magic, when evil spirits were said to appear. To thwart them, Pagans often wore protective garlands of herbs and flowers. One of the most powerful of them was a plant called 'chase-devil', which is known today as St. John's Wort and still used by modern herbalists as a mood stabilizer.

Happy Summer Solstice....

so whadda get me?

So when does Keith have his appointment with the Wicker Man??

Eyes High wrote:Happy Summer Solstice....

so whadda get me?

Heat stroke.

say, thanks for reminding, I almost forgot; but the mexicans woulda told me -
we're re-setting our solstice/equinox poles today ... extending the line from the flag poles
in front of the big house to out about a thousand yard and planting some Afghanistan Desert Pine Trees ...

if you have young kids, this a great day for home-schooling - take them out in the yard before
sundown, mark a place in the yard, and mark a line between that spot and the angle of the setting
sun as it crosses the horizon and mark another spot .... then, show the kids that the sun "moves"
to the south from now until the winter solstice ... go out at the autumnal equinox and show them that
that is the "midpoint" and mark that line, too ... at the winter solstice, mark that line, and explain that
this is the basis for most of the ancient world's geometry ... you can teach about the Egyptians, Mayans,
American Indians, India Indians, whatever, and get some math and astrophysics in there, too ...

you can also show them that once you have the angles of the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox,
you can measure using those two points and go ahead and plant a winter solstice pole, "predicting" the
winter solstice ... if their math was right, they should be able to tell you a week ahead of the date without
a calendar .... cool shit for a kid; I know, my pawpaw showed me that when I was about seven, and it got
me interested in astronomy, geometry, and the Anasazi Indians all in the same evening ...

SandRider wrote:say, thanks for reminding, I almost forgot; but the mexicans woulda told me -
we're re-setting our solstice/equinox poles today ... extending the line from the flag poles
in front of the big house to out about a thousand yard and planting some Afghanistan Desert Pine Trees ...

if you have young kids, this a great day for home-schooling - take them out in the yard before
sundown, mark a place in the yard, and mark a line between that spot and the angle of the setting
sun as it crosses the horizon and mark another spot .... then, show the kids that the sun "moves"
to the south from now until the winter solstice ... go out at the autumnal equinox and show them that
that is the "midpoint" and mark that line, too ... at the winter solstice, mark that line, and explain that
this is the basis for most of the ancient world's geometry ... you can teach about the Egyptians, Mayans,
American Indians, India Indians, whatever, and get some math and astrophysics in there, too ...

you can also show them that once you have the angles of the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox,
you can measure using those two points and go ahead and plant a winter solstice pole, "predicting" the
winter solstice ... if their math was right, they should be able to tell you a week ahead of the date without
a calendar .... cool shit for a kid; I know, my pawpaw showed me that when I was about seven, and it got
me interested in astronomy, geometry, and the Anasazi Indians all in the same evening ...

COOL ! Thanks Papa Bear. That is a great idea.

Freakzilla wrote:

Eyes High wrote:Happy Summer Solstice....

so whadda get me?

Heat stroke.

Awww I can't get that almsot any day over here in the summer. I wanted the new and improved, mega ultra extrodenaire.... Well "Thanks" any how.

You know, I just have to be an old grump here, and say that the term 'start of Summer' when applied to the Summer Solstice (and equally 'start of Winter' being applied to the Winter Solstice) irritates me no end.

There's a clue in the alternative names for these events: MidSummer and MidWinter.

As the highest and lowest points of the Apparent Sun in our sky, they represent a culmination which fits better into the middle of the season, not at the beginning - although that point is a purely aesthetic one, I admit.

Solsitices can logically only be the start of seasons if the Equinoxes are the start of Spring and Autumn. That wouldn't be a problem if we didn't have to deal with that 'Mid' in the names of the solstices, and with one other point:

Pagans in general celebrate 8 sabbats a year (OK, OK- Neo Wiccan Pagans in particular). Four of them are at the solsticial and equinoctial points, and the other four are called 'cross quarter' festivals (because they are not the quarter festivals, duh) interspersed roughly at regular intervals between them (very regular intervals if the Pagan celebrating them is myself, as I take the astronomical midpoint between solstice and equinox to be the cross quarter sabbat - I'm OC that way). They' correspond to the start of the seasons(Northern/Southern Hemisphere) - beginning of Feb (Spring/Autumn), beginning of May (Summer/Winter), beginning of August(Autumn/Spring) and beginning of November (Winter/Summer).

Thanks for listening. We now return you to your regular programming.

Sev wrote:So when does Keith have his appointment with the Wicker Man??

Brilliant!

The solstice stuff is good too...
Sev, that was brilliant!