Today is summer solstice, also known as Midsummer (though sometimes this is celebrated on a different day – the 24th this year), throughout the Northern Hemisphere and is Winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. In the Northern hemisphere, this is a time to celebrate the beauty and bounty of summer and all things relating to sunshine! It’s also the day to acknowledge that the days are going to start growing shorter and it is the beginning of the return of night – solstice having the shortest of dark hours of the entire year.
The traditional way of celebrating solstice are nearly identical to how you would celebrate memorial day or the 4th of July – spending the day outdoors playing games, fireworks, and the all important barbeque (bonfire)! The sun represents vitality and life force, so engaging in activities that celebrate the living are very important on this day. As always, it is traditional to decorate with wreaths, symbolizing the wheel of the year, decorated with yellow flowers, representing the sun. It’s also the time of year to dispose of spring decorations and replace them with summer oriented ones – and disposal is commonly done in a bonfire where it is safe to do this.
Celebrations starting in the evening and lasting through the night are also common. I was quite surprised this morning when searching for celebrations to find that almost everywhere there are public solstice celebrations consisting of food, dance, music, performers and sometimes ritual as well! Check your local listings to find out if there’s any such celebration near you – there’s one near me about 30 minutes from my home in the nearest big city. Celebrations are a perfect way to celebrate the solstice because they are so full of vitality and life energy and really bring a community together.
More private celebrations include devotions to the god and goddess, summer deities, fire elements, and summer faerie folk. These devotions often include yellow flowers and candles, discs of gold to represent the sun, and mirrors and crystals/prisms to reflect the light. Gratitude for life and the bounty of the sun are key in these devotions, as are recognizing strengths and the gifts we’ve received. This is also a good time to review and express gratitude for the strengths and talents/skills that you have and those that you plan to cultivate in the coming months.
I was also surprised to see the number of solstice sales going on today – it’s so nice to see some public recognition of the day again, even if it is just being used as an excuse for shopping.
So, how are you planning to celebrate the solstice today? I’m planning on picking up some hotdogs and hamburgers and grilling them up, and performing candlelit devotions tonight. Here in the desert it’s over 115 degrees today and a little too warm for summer outside games, so those will be postponed until evening when things cool down. Our celebration will also include gratitude for the worsening of the heat being over and looking forward to the cooling of fall.
