Happy Summer Solstice
“People around the world have observed spiritual and religious seasonal days of celebration during the month of June. Most have been religious holy days which are linked in some way to the summer solstice. On this day, typically JUN-21, the daytime hours are at a maximum in the Northern hemisphere, and night time is at a minimum. It is officially the first day of summer. It is also referred to as Midsummer because it is roughly the middle of the growing season throughout much of Europe.” – Religious Tolerance.org
“With the warmth of the season caressing the land, the celebration of the Summer Solstice brings forth a truly joyous recognition that we can now enjoy the fruits of our labors in the past season. It is not surprising that this same spirit of pleasure and fun had carried over into our modern-day recognition of this, the longest day of the year. Falling on or about June 22nd, the Summer Solstice is a time of light and of fire. It is a time to reflect upon the growth of the season: the seeds that were planted in the earth and the seeds planted in our souls. It is a time of cleansing and renewal. It is a time of love and growth as well.” – Equinox and Solstice
“Up to 21,000 druids, spiritualists and revellers gathered at Stonehenge before dawn on Tuesday, with many beating drums and playing pipes to celebrate the summer solstice. A spokeswoman for English Heritage said they had witnessed a “fantastic sunrise” at the start of the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Cheers rang out across Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire as the sun rose at 4:58 a.m.” – Reuters
“According to Selena Fox, high priestess and senior minister with Circle Sanctuary Staff, a Wiccan church in Madison, summer solstice, also known as Midsummer, Litha or St. John’s Day, has been a grand tribal gathering since ancient times. The festival is a community of sharing and planetary service. In ‘Celebrating the Seasons,’ Fox describes how pagans honor the day. ‘Keep a sacred fire burning throughout the gathering. Stay up all night on solstice eve and welcome the rising sun at dawn. Make a pledge to Mother Earth of something that you will do to improve the environment and then begin carrying it out. Have a magical gift exchange with friends. Burn your yule wreath in a summer solstice bonfire. Exchange songs, chants and stories with others in person or through the mail. Do ecstatic dancing to drums around a blazing bonfire.’ For nature religions, the day is a very upbeat celebration, even though it signals passing into the dark half of the year, said Heidi Meindl, a pagan from Oxford. ‘In the ancient cultures, that was a big working of the gods. It was seen as a passing from one part of the year to the next,’ she said. ‘They prayed for blessing for the crops because they just started to grow and come in, and protection from storms.’” – Marshfield News Herald
“The ancients knew that life came from the sun, it was life giving, life supporting, without it life would be lost. The journey of the sun impacted life at every level in the course of time, only relatively recently with the advances of electricity, greenhouses, transportation networks, has human reliance on the passage of the sun been lessened. Even with this dependence lessening, in this technological age, necessity of the sun and its path is crucial to our existence, however it is not as apparent today to many.” – Witchvox
Have a great Solstice!
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