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Summer Solstice
Midsummer
Litha
St. Johns Feast Day
June 21st
represents all that is beautiful about summer.
The fields are heavy
with plants just starting to bear fruit, the sun is high in the sky,
warming everything. These
are the heavy days of summer that leave us feeling lazy in our hammocks.
The summer solstice is
the longest day of the year, with the sun staying out longer than any
other day. After the
solstice, the days shorten, as we move toward the summer’s end and on
to the Autumnal Equinox and then Samhain.
| Solstitial
celebrations still centre upon 24 June, which is no longer the
longest day of the year. The difference between the Julian
calendar year (365.2500 days) and the tropical year (365.2422
days) moved the day associated with the actual astronomical
solstice forward approximately three days every four centuries,
until Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar bringing the
solstice to around 21 June. In the Gregorian calendar, the
solstice moves around a bit but in the long term it moves only
about one day in 3000 years.
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Wikipedia |
In pagan communities,
the plants of midsummer were believed to be the most potent and were
gathered with rituals and rites that would lend abundance to the village
or area.
Some have the custom of
standing beneath the sun at full noon, to absorb its light and heat for
the growing season ahead. To feel the sun meant abundance and
hope.
Festivities included
the lighting of bonfires, dancing round them, leaping the crops to
encourage growth, desire and courtship were considered lucky at this
time as well as fertility enhanced.
Wicca
and Other Pagan Traditions
| Litha
is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats observed by
Wiccans, though the New Forest traditions (those referred to as
British Traditional Wicca) tend to use the traditional name
Midsummer. It is celebrated on the Summer Solstice, or close to
it. The holiday is considered the turning point at which summer
reaches its height and the sun shines longest. Among the Wiccan
sabbats, Midsummer is preceded by Beltane, and followed by
Lughnasadh or Lammas. -
Wikipedia |
Vernal
Equinox
©
2008 JLeeDavis
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