The Tanasbrook Times. Beaverton, Oregon. June 2005.
Summer Solstice: The Power of the Sun
By Jennifer Willis
The first day of summer is nearly upon us!
The summer solstice which falls on Tuesday, June 21, this year marks the maximum daylight hours in the Northern hemisphere, with night at a minimum. This day is also known as Midsummer, because it falls roughly half-way through the growing season in much of Europe. In the Southern hemisphere, the summer solstice is celebrated in December.
The word "solstice" is derived from the Latin "sol" (sun) and "sistere" (to cause to stand still). As the summer solstice approaches, the noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky each day; but on the day of the solstice, the sun rises only an imperceptible amount, and so appears to stand still.
Throughout history, people around the world have celebrated religious holidays connected to the summer solstice. In ancient China, the summer solstice ceremony celebrated the earth, yin, and feminine forces, complementing the winter solstice celebration of the heavens, yang, and masculine forces. In ancient Sweden, each town set up and decorated a Midsummer tree, and the villagers danced around it; to bring rain for the crops, women and girls bathed in the local river as a magical ritual. In Europe, ancient pagans marked the solstice with a bonfire festival of love magic, oracles, and divination, and pairs of lovers would leap together over the flames for luck with the belief that crops would grow as high as the couples could jump.
This time of year, between the planting and harvesting of crops, has been the traditional month for weddings; not wanting to compete with the God and Goddess, whose grand union is celebrated May 1 at Beltane, ancient couples delayed their weddings until June.
After Europe's conversion to Christianity, the feast day of St. John the Baptist was set at this time, while in the Americas, the Natchez tribe held a first fruits festival to honor the sun, from whom they believed they ruler to be descended; only after the festival could the corn be harvested. Modern neopagans continue to celebrate Midsummer or Litha as the time when the sun reaches its greatest strength and the earth promises a bountiful harvest, and as an opportunity to do spells for abundance and prosperity; it is also a time for divination and healing rituals.