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Summer solstice celebrations of Christianity, Judaism, Neopaganism, etc ord=Math.random()*10000000000000000; .style1 { font-family: "Times New Roman";}.style2 { margin-left: 40px;}.style3 { font-family: serif;} About this site About us Our beliefs Your first visit? Contact us External links Good books Visitor essays Our forum New essays Other features Buy a CD Vital notes  World religions BUDDHISM CHRISTIANITY Who is a Christian? Shared beliefs Handle change Bible topics Bible inerrancy Bible harmony Interpret Bible Persons Beliefs, creeds Da Vinci code Revelation, 666 Denominations HINDUISM ISLAM JUDAISM WICCA / WITCHCRAFT Other religions Cults and NRMs Comparing religions Non-theistic... Atheism Agnosticism Humanism Other About all religions Main topics Basic info. Gods/Goddesses Handling change Doubt/security Quotes Movies Confusing terms Glossary World's end True religion? Seasonal topics Science/Religion More info. Spiritual/ethics Spirituality Morality/ethics Absolute truth Peace/conflict Attaining peace Religious tolerance Religious hatred Religious conflict Religious violence "Hot" topics Very hot topics Ten Commandments Abortion Assisted suicide Cloning Death penalty Environment Homouality Gay marriage Origins & gender Sin Spanking kids Stem cells Women-rights Other topics Laws and news Religious laws Religious news  Religious informationSummer solstice celebrations:ancient and modernSponsored link.document.write(''); The Summer Solstice is also known as: Alban Heflin, Alben Heruin, All-couples day, Feast of Epona, Feastof St. John the Baptist, Feill-Sheathain, Gathering Day, Johannistag, Litha,Midsummer, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, Vestalia, etc.OverviewPeople 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."Solstice" is derived fromtwo Latin words: "sol" meaning sun, and "sistere,"to cause to stand still. This is because, as the summer solsticeapproaches, the noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky on eachsuccessive day. On the day of the solstice, it rises an imperceptible amount,compared to the day before. In this sense, it "stands still." (In the southernhemisphere, the summer solstice is celebrated in December, also when the night timeis at a minimum and the daytime is at a maximum. We will assume that the readerlives in the Northern hemisphere for the rest of this essay.)How people view solstice celebrations:People view other religions in various ways, andthus treat the celebrations of other faiths differently:For some people, religious diversity is a positive factor. They enjoy the variety of June celebrations, because it is evidence of wide range of of beliefs within our common humanity. They respect both their own religious traditions and those of other faiths for their ability to inspire people to lead more ethical lives. Others reject the importance of all celebrations other than the holy day(s)recognized by their own religion. Some even reject their religion's traditional holydays if they are convinced that they have Pagan origins. This is a common occurrence with Easter and Christmas.Some view other religions as being inspired, controlled, or even ledby Satan. Thus the solsticecelebrations of other religions are rejected because they are viewed as Satanic in origin.Why does the summer solstice happen?The seasons of the year are caused by the 23.5° tilt of the earth's axis. Because theearth is rotating like a top or gyroscope, the North Pole points in a fixed directioncontinuously -- towards a point in space near the North Star. But the earth isalso revolving around the sun. During half of the year, the southern hemisphereis more exposed to the sun than is the northern hemisphere. During the rest ofthe year, the reverse is true. At noontime in the Northern Hemisphere the sunappears high in the sky during summertime, and low during winter. Thetime of the year when the sun reaches its maximum elevation occurs on the summersolstice -- the daywith the greatest number of daylight hours. It typically occurs on, or within aday or two of, JUN-21 -- the first day of summer. The lowest elevation occurs about DEC-21and is the winter solstice -- the first day of winter, when the night time hoursreach their maximum.Sponsored link:document.write(''); Significance of the summer solstice:In pre-historic times, summer was a joyous time of the year for those Aboriginal peoplewho lived in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out;warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned tothe deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for medicinal andother uses. Food was easier to find. The crops had already been planted and would beharvested in the months to come. Although many months of warm/hot weather remained before the fall, theynoticed that the days were beginning to shorten, so that the return of the cold season was inevitable. The first (or only) full moon in June is called the Honey Moon. Traditionholds that this is the best time to harvest honey from the hives. This time of year, between the planting and harvesting of the crops, was thetraditional month for weddings. This is because many ancient peoplesbelieved that the "grand [ual] union" of the Goddess and Godoccurred in early May at Beltaine. Since it was unlucky to compete with thedeities, many couples delayed their weddings until June. June remains a favoritemonth for marriage today. In some traditions, "newly wed couples werefed dishes and beverages that featured honey for the first month of theirmarried life to encourage love and fertility. The surviving vestige of thistradition lives on in the name given to the holiday immediately after theceremony: The Honeymoon." 14Midsummer celebrations in ancient and modern times:Most societies in the northern hemisphere, ancient and modern, havecelebrated a festival on or close to Midsummer:Ancient Celts: Druids, the priestly/professional/diplomaticcorps in Celtic countries, celebrated Alban Heruin ("Light ofthe Shore"). It was midway between the spring Equinox (AlbanEiler; "Light of the Earth") and the fall Equinox(Alban Elfed; "Light of the Water"). "Thismidsummer festival celebrates the apex of Light, sometimes symbolizedin the crowning of the Oak King, God of the waxing year. At hiscrowning, the Oak King falls to his darker aspect, the Holly King, Godof the waning year..." 13 The daysfollowing Alban Heruin form the waning part of the year because thedays become shorter.Ancient China: Their summer solstice ceremony celebrated the earth,the feminine, and the yin forces. It complemented the winter solsticewhich celebrated the heavens, masculinity and yang forces.Ancient Gaul: The Midsummer celebration was called Feast of Epona,named after a mare goddess who personified fertility, sovereignty andagriculture. She was portrayed as a woman riding a mare.Ancient Germanic, Slav and Celtic tribes in Europe: Ancient Paganscelebrated Midsummer with bonfires. "It was the night of firefestivals and of love magic, of love oracles and divination. It had todo with lovers and predictions, when pairs of lovers would jumpthrough the luck-bringing flames..." It was believed that thecrops would grow as high as the couples were able to jump. Through thefire's power, "...maidenswould find out about their future husband, and spirits and demons werebanished." Another function of bonfires was to generatesympathetic magic: giving a boost to the sun's energy so that it wouldremain potent throughout the rest of the growing season and guaranteea plentiful harvest. 6Ancient Rome: The festival of Vestalia lasted from JUN-7 toJUN-15. It was held in honor of the Roman Goddess of the hearth, Vesta.Married women were able to enter the shrine of Vesta during thefestival. At other times of the year, only the vestal virgins werepermitted inside.Ancient Sweden: A Midsummer tree was set up and decorated ineach town. The villagersdanced around it. Women and girls would customarily bathe in the local river.This was a magical ritual, intended to bring rain for the crops.Christian countries: After the conversion of Europe toChristianity, the feast day of St. John the Baptist was set as JUN-24.It "is one of the oldest feasts, if not the oldest feast,introduced into both the Greek and Latin liturgies to honour a saint."16 Curiously, the feast is held on the alleged dateof his birth. Other Christian saints' days are observed on theanniversary of their death. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains thatSt. John was "filled with the Holy Ghost even from hismother's womb...[thus his] birth...should be signalized as a day oftriumph." 16 His feast day is offset a fewdays after the summer solstice, just as Christmas is fixed a few daysafter the winter solstice. 1 "Justas John was the forerunner to Jesus, midsummer forecasts the eventualarrival of" the winter solstice circa DEC-21. Essenes: This was a Jewish religious group active in Palestine during the 1st century CE. It was one of about 24 Jewish groups in the country -- the only one that used a solar calendar. Other Jewish groups at the time included the Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots, followers of John, and followers of Yeshua (Jesus). Archaeologists have found that the largest room of the ruins at Qumran (location of the Dead Sea Scrolls) appears to be a sun temple. The room had been considered a dining room by earlier investigators, in spite of the presence of two altars at its eastern end. At the time of the summer solstice, the rays of the setting sun shine at 286 degrees along the building's longitudinal axis, and illuminate the eastern wall. The room is oriented at exactly the same angle as the Egyptian shrines dedicated to the sun. Two ancient authorities -- the historian Josephus and the philosopher Filon of Alexandria -- had written that the Essenes were sun worshipers. Until recently, their opinion had been rejected by modern historians. 19Native Americans:The Natchez tribe in the southern U.S. "worshiped thesun and believed that their ruler was descended from him. Everysummer they held a first fruits ceremony." Nobody wasallowed to harvest the corn until after the feast. 2Males in the Hopi tribe dressed up as Kachinas - thedancing spirits of rain and fertility who were messengers betweenhumanity and the Gods. At Midsummer, the Kachinas were believed toleave thevillages to spend the next six months in the mountains, where theywere believed to visit the dead underground and hold ceremonies ontheir behalf. 2Native Americans have created countless stone structures linked toequinoxes and solstices. Many are still standing.One was called Calendar One by its modern-day discoverer. It is in a naturalamphitheatre of about 20 acres in size in Vermont. From a stoneenclosure in the center of the bowl, one can see a number of verticalrocks and other markers around the edge of the bowl "At the summersolstice, the sun rose at the southern peak of the east ridge andset at a notch at the southern end of the west ridge." Thewinter solstice and the equinoxes were similarly marked. 5The Bighorn Medicine Wheel west of Sheridan, WY is perhaps themost famous of the 40 or more similar "wheels" on the highplains area of the Rocky Mountains. Mostly are located in Canada. AtBighorn, the center of a small cairn, that is external to the mainwheel, lines up with the center of the wheel and the sun rising at thesummer equinox. Another similar sighting cairn provides a sighting forthree dawn-rising stars: Aldebaran, Rigel and Sirius. A third cairnlines up with fourth star: Fomalhaut. The term "medicine wheel"was coined by Europeans; it was a term used to describe anything nativethat white people didn't understand. 17Neopaganism: This is a group of religions which are attemptedre-constructions of ancient Pagan religions. Of these, Wicca is the mostcommon; it is loosely based partly on ancient Celtic beliefs and practices.Wiccans recognize eight seasonal days of celebration. Four are minor sabbatsand occur at the two solstices and the two equinoxes. The other are majorsabbats which happen approximately halfway between an equinox and solstice.The summer solstice sabbat is often called Midsummer or Litha. Wiccans maycelebrate the sabbat on the evening before, at sunrise on the morning of thesolstice, or at the exact time of the astronomical event."Midsummer is the time when the sun reaches the peak of itspower, the earth is green and holds the promise of a bountifulharvest. The Mother Goddess is viewed as heavily pregnant, and the Godis at the apex of his manhood and is honored in his guise as thesupreme sun." 12It is a time for divination and healing rituals. Diviningrods and wands are traditionally cut at this time.Prehistoric Europe: Many remains of ancient stone structures can be foundthroughoutEurope. Some date back many millennia BCE. Many appear to have religious/astronomical purposes; others are burialtombs. These structures were built before writing was developed. One canonly speculate on the significance of the summer solstice to thebuilders. Perhaps the most famous of these structures is Stonehenge, amegalith monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. It was built inthree stages, between circa 3000 and 1500 BCE."The circular bank and ditch, double circle of 'bluestones'(spotted dolerite), and circle of sarsen stones (some with whitelintels), are concentric, and the main axis is aligned on themidsummer sunrise--an orientation that was probably for ritual ratherthan scientific purposes.4 Four "stationstones" within the monument form a rectangle whose shorterside also points in the direction of the midsummer sunrise. 15The dates and times of the summer solstice:The exact date varies from year to year and may occur between the 20th and 23rd ofJune. YearSummersolsticeNorthern hemisphere(UT)1999JUN-21 @ 19:492000JUN-21 @ 01:472001JUN-21 @ 07:372002JUN-21 @ 13:242003JUN-21 @ 19:102004JUN-21 @ 00:562005JUN-21 @ 06:462006JUN-21 @ 12:262007JUN-21 @ 18:062008JUN-20 @ 23:592009JUN-21 @ 05:45The dates and times for 1999 to 2004 were provided byThe Dome of the Sky web site. 9 However, this site is not working as of 2005-APR-05. The dates and times for 2005 to 2009 were copied from Archaeostronomy.com. 20 An online "Easy Date Converter" calculates the dates and times of the equinoxes and solstices within 20 seconds. 21Times are in UT(Universal Time). This used to be called Greenwich Mean Time or GMT. In NorthAmerica, you can find your local time by subtracting:2 hours 30 minutes for Newfoundland daylight savings time3 hours for ADT4 hours for EDT5 hours for CDT6 hours for MDT7 hours for PDT8 hours in AKDT (Alaska)9 hours in ADT (Aleutian Islands)10 hours in HST (Hawaii) 10The ancients did not have access to modern mathematical algorithms to calculate thedate and time of the solstice. To the unaided eye, the sun would seem toset/rise at the same location on the horizon for about five days beforeand after the actual solstice. Ancient people would record the days whenthe sun rise or set was noticeably different from the extreme position,and interpolate the probable day of the solstice. They then used a varietyof techniques to display future solstices:A carved or painted symbol, or some other marker, would be locatedat the end of a long passage that was exposed to sunrise or sunset onthe solstice. It would be illuminated by the rising orsetting of the sun on the day of the solstice. Alternatively, a hole inthe roof of a structure would allow the noonday sun to shine onto amarker set into the floor.In temperate zones, the shadow of an upright pillar would beobservedat noontime at the summer solstice. The shadow would be shortest onthat day.The point on the horizon where the sun set and rose would beobserved from a fixed location. A remote marker would indicate wherethe sun rose or set on the solstice. 3Megalithic structure aligned to sunset on the summer solstice:According to Knowth.com:A 5,000 year old Cairn G at Carrowkeel in North West Ireland is aligned to allow sunlight from the setting sun at the summer solstice to enter the cairn and scan across an orthostat -- a stone at the rear of the cairn. Dramatic photographs of the cairn taken on 2008-JUN-20 are available at:http://www.newgrange.com/Many dozens videos are available free on YouTube showing the summer solstice at Stonehenge and elsewhere. See:http://www.youtube.com/ Related essays:Spring equinoxEasterFall equinoxWinter solstice Resources -- a book and a web site: Ellen Jackson, "The Summer Solstice," Millbrook Press, (2001). Readreviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store. This is intended for children ages 4 to 8. Booklist comments: "Jackson includes information about the summer solstice from many (mainly Western) cultures and locales, from the Chumash and Anasazi Indians to the ancient Egyptians, from Swaziland to Sweden. A brief explanation of the earth's tilt, a solstice story adapted from a Hawaiian chant, and a few pages of solstice activities round out the treatment." Her book made the "100 Best Books of 2001" list of the L.A. Unified Library Services.Ellen Jackson has an article on the summer solstice athttp://www.ellenjackson.net/ She supplies some facts about summer, describes to games, and provides two recipes: one for your dog, and one for family members with half as many legs. Sponsored links:References that we used:The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today."Summer solstice - Johannisnacht - Midsummer night," at: http://www.serve.com/ Robin DuMolin, "Summer Solstice," at: http://www.celestia.com/Robin DuMolin, "Summer Solstice," at: http://www.celestia.com/http://www.christiaan.com/ Janet & Stewart Farrar, "Eight Sabbats for Witches,"Phoenix Publishing, (1981), P. 143 to 144."Summer Solstice," at: http://users.erols.com/ J.W. Mavor & B.E. Dix, "Manitou: The sacred landscape of NewEngland's Native Civilization." Inner Traditions (1989).Selena Fox, "Summer solstice celebrations for families andhouseholds," http://www.circlesanctuary.org/ "Find the equinoxes and solstices for a particular year,"at http://domeofthesky.com/ "World Time Zone: Accurate local times," at: http://www.isbister.com/"Litha," a list of links to web sites about Litha, is at:http://paganwiccan.about.com/religion/paganwiccan"Litha," a description of the festival from a Neopaganperspective, is at: http://home.att.net/"Litha: Summer Solstice," at: http://www.byzant.com/"Morgana, "Ritual feasts - handfasting," at: http://www.newavalon.com/G.S. Hawkins, "Stonehenge decoded," Doubleday (1965),Pages 46 & 47.C.L. Souvay, "St. John the Baptist," The CatholicEncyclopedia, at: http://www.newadvent.org/ Paula Giese, "Medicine wheel: Sun & Stars," at: http://indy4.fdl.cc.mn.us/ The Center for Archaeoastronomy publishes a four page quarterlynewsletter, appropriately published on the equinoxes and solstices. See: http://www.wam.umd.edu/M Lnnqvist & K Lnnqvist, "archaeology of the Hidden Qumran: The new paradigm," (2002) a book advertised at: http://www.akateeminen.com/ "2005 Equinox, Solstice & Cross-Quarter Movements," Archaeoastronomy.com, at:http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/"Dates and Times of Equinoxes and Solstices," Hermetic Systems, at: http://www.hermetic.ch/Copyright © 2000 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants onReligious ToleranceOriginally written: 2000-MAY-28Latest update: 2008-JUL-07Author: B.A. Robinson document.write(''); Go to the previous page, or to the religious information menu, or choose:  WebReligiousTolerance.org      Sponsored link:document.write(''); |
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