Summer Solstice

 

It’s the summer solstice when the planet tilts on its semi-axis in both hemispheres. Its maximum axial tilt toward the sun is 23° 26'. This happens twice each year, at which times the sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the north or the south pole.

It is the longest day and the start of summer.

Festivals abound and have throughout time.

St. John is celebrated between the 21 and June 25 including in Argelès when a torch will be brought down from the top of Mount Canagau and will be used to light a bonfire.

In Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia, Midsummer's Eve is the second greatest festival of the year,.

Pagan celebrations including scaring away dragons.

In Köln in the 1300s women washed their hands and arms in the Rhine.

The Wicca holiday of Litha was mention in Bede’s Reckoning of Time (De Temporum Ratione, 7th century), which preserves a list of the (then-obsolete) Anglo-Saxon names for the twelve months.

Celebrate it or not, the sun revolves around the earth, but is time to welcome the lushness of summer.

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