The year’s longest day

Tomorrow will be the day we know as the Summer Solstice – the year’s longest day with the most daylight hours. Since the shortest day on the 21st December, we’ve been building up, minute by slow minute, to get to this point in the year; with many of us gazing with wonder and making statements like “Wow, it’s 9.30pm and it’s still light!”

Image by Gads on freeimages.com

Apart from giving us lovely long evenings in which to go for a lovely walk, bike ride, or just sit in the lovely Oakeley Arms beer garden and enjoy a glass of wine, the summer solstice isn’t much celebrated these days.

But, it was once one of the most important days of the year. Thousands of years ago in the Pagan calendar, it was one of the most important dates. Paganism was practiced by many of the tribes-people who lived across the Celtic lands before Christianity swept across the world a couple of thousand years ago. They were usually concerned with the state of nature and the land, and they celebrated their gods, who existed for many different areas of living – gods of water, fire and earth for example.

These people were big celebrators of the summer solstice because it was a time to give thanks to the gods for a successful spring and summer, and to ask them for a lucky harvest in the autumn when all the produce would be picked and stored for the survival of the coming winter.

Celebrations often took the form of rituals, fires, feasts and dancing, as the tribes gave thanks and offerings to the gods.

These days, some modern pagans still celebrate the Summer Solstice by participating in the festival at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, a site thought to be one of the most sacred for the pagan peoples.

Image by obyvatel on freeimages.com

So, how will you be celebrating the summer solstice this year? Will it mean a thanks to the gods for a sunny week, an extra hour of light to enjoy a walk, or as we said earlier, simply some extra time in which to sit in the garden and relax… Ummmm, we know what we’ll be doing!!

Did you know….. that the word SOLSTICE comes from two Latin words – sol, which means “sun” and sistere which means to “stand still”