The Summer Solstice

[poliphilo]

It used to be a "mystery". Now it isn't. Over that past few years we seem to have settled what all those stone age and bronze age monuments- from Stonehenge to Newgrange- were for. They were for  predicting  and celebrating the Winter Solstice. The fact the some of them also link to the Summer Solstice is accidental.

The Winter Solstice is the crux of the year. The sun was going away;  now it's coming back. The world isn't going to end after all. We're saved. 

The Summer Solstice on the other hand is just another nice warm day like all the others. There's nothing about it that packs any psychological, religious or cosmological punch. It doesn't relate to the agricultural cycle either.  Think about it too deeply- this is the day that marks the beginning of the sun's journey into the underworld- and you could actually get a wee bit depressed.

The cult of high summer is a modern thing- holidays and beaches and  turning brown for the heck of it. Our ancestors weren't into any of that.  If they had choice in the matter they kept to the shade. 

So there's nothing ancient or ancestral about the Summer Solstice party at Stonehenge. Not that I'm knocking it;  it looks like fun. Good old King Arthur Pendragon, the Druid (I've got lots of time for him) was interviewed on the BBC but seemed a bit hazy when it came to explaining what he was doing there.

As well he might.

Because the Winter Solstice/Yule/Christmas always was and still is the one that matters.

Comments

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

I personally view the summer solstice as the turning point in the year when I think 'Shit, look at all the time that's flown! Now it's only a matter of time before the nights draw in and we hunker down for the winter'. So yes, a high mellow summer day but still a wee bit depressing.

[silversmoke.livejournal.com]

I prefer to think of Summer Solstice as the day the Austrailians get to join in on all the fun. *grin*

[methodius.livejournal.com]

We're having quite a warm winter solstice today.

It's nearly 7:00 pm, it's dark, and yet I'm wearuing shorts and haven't got the heater on.

I'm not sure whether tonight will be the longes night or whether last night was. I suppose the newspaper will tell me if I have a look.

I forgot to look to see where the sun set tonight, and it will be moving south from there now. Tomorrow will do - must plant an evergreen tree there to stop the sun shining in my window on winter afternoons.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I wonder how much of this sentiment is dependent on geography. I'm not a pagan, but I always sort of like reaching this point in the year, because (living in the Sonoran desert as I do) it means that although the summer will continually get hotter, the sun's power is now waning and we can start looking forward to cooler temperatures (still four months away, though).

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

In past years, I have always hated the solstice, because the days start getting shorter, and all too soon it won't be light when I get up.

This year, everything has changed because of Nanook. He's been getting up earlier and earlier. This morning, he woke up at 1 AM (probably as part of his personal solstice celebration!) and expected me to let him out. (I won't let him out till after 5, because I fear him being taken by coyotes.) I expect him to start sleeping in when the days get longer.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

but... didn't you have a post about a year ago on the significance of the summer solstice?