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I’ve all the time been a summer season lady. It’s not cozy like fall, brisk like winter, or hopeful like spring. Summer time stands by itself as a brilliant, energizing time of yr. It’s when happiness is only a juicy, drip-down-your-chin chunk of watermelon away—and giddiness arrives with a single cannonball off the diving board. The nights stretch lengthy into golden hour, when even the lightning bugs activate their electrical allure. The whole lot on the planet simply feels higher when it’s sun-kissed.
So you may think about my delight once I was requested to put in writing a information to celebrating the summer season solstice.
One among my favourite summer season individuals is my mother-in-law—a girl named Margaret who, someplace alongside the best way, began calling herself “Marguerite” as a result of she felt it suited her higher. (The identify means “wild French daisy,” which is much extra her type.) Because the household matriarch, she inspired us to stay creatively and shade exterior the strains, even whereas rooted in a buttoned-up suburban neighborhood in San Antonio.
Whereas others performed tennis and sipped toddies on the membership, Marguerite spent her days gardening and meditating. And when most households gathered for Christmas or Hanukkah in December, she would lead us in moonlit winter solstice celebrations—decked in silver and gold, dancing underneath the celebs. Within the hotter months, it was maypoles, flower crowns, magic spells, and midsummer revelry. It was magical and memorable. It taught me to method the world with open-hearted exuberance and childlike whimsy.
Years later, my lovely mother-in-law is affected by a debilitating and uncommon mind illness. Now greater than ever, I discover myself leaning on the reminiscences of these traditions she introduced into my life. In honor of her valuable and galvanizing spirit, I began trying into incorporating a few of her wildly fantastic methods into my circle of relatives of 5.
Learn on for a glance into what the summer season solstice is, why it’s celebrated, and a few concepts that you just, too, can incorporate into your individual festivities.
What’s the summer season solstice?
Through the summer season solstice within the northern hemisphere, the earth’s axis is tilted most in the direction of the solar, providing up the longest day of the yr (assume: extra daylight!) and the shortest evening. It all the time happens on the finish of June. This yr, Summer time Solstice is on Friday, June twentieth, thus starting the astronomical begin of summer season.
Why can we have fun it?
For 1000’s of years, individuals have celebrated the summer season and winter solstices as markers of the planting and harvest seasons—relationship all the best way again to the Neolithic period, in response to St. Neot’s Museum. Early Pagans honored the summer season solstice as a time to glorify the Solar God, adorning themselves with garlands of herbs and flowers believed to thrust back evil spirits (which they thought have been most lively throughout the top of summer season). Right now, these traditions stay on, with solstice celebrations symbolizing new life, gentle, renewal, fertility, and abundance—each inside ourselves and on the planet round us.
How is the summer season solstice celebrated all over the world?
In England, individuals collect collectively to look at the dawn above the Heel Stone at Stonehenge. Within the Nordic international locations of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, they have fun with their Midsommer festivals, every with their very own distinctive traditions (the Swedes embellish their hair with flowers and dance round Maypoles, whereas the Finns gentle bonfires and soak in saunas.) In the meantime, simply 150 miles south of the arctic circle in Fairbanks, Alaska, they have fun every summer season solstice with a midnight solar baseball sport and competition.
In England, crowds collect to look at the solar rise above the Heel Stone at Stonehenge—a timeless solstice custom. Throughout the Nordic international locations of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, Midsommer festivals take heart stage, every with its personal distinctive customs. In Sweden, revelers put on flower crowns and dance round maypoles, whereas in Finland, bonfires blaze and saunas are a key a part of the celebration. In the meantime, simply 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, Fairbanks, Alaska marks the summer season solstice with a midnight solar baseball sport and a city-wide competition.
Wish to create your individual competition with out touring to the ends of the earth? Learn on for a few of our concepts to have fun the longest day of the yr!
Outside Summer time Solstice Actions
Take a hike. Get off the crushed path, lace up these mountaineering boots, and put together to sweat a bit. There’s no higher option to have fun summer season solstice than (a music and podcast-free) hike by Mom Nature, permitting the one noise to be the sound of crunching grime beneath your toes.
Bask within the solar’s glory. Get exterior and permit your pores and skin to absorb a little bit of vitamin D. And in the event you’re hanging exterior for greater than only a few minutes, right here’s our roundup of all our favourite mineral and chemical sunscreens.
Escape the garden video games. Pickleball or bocce, anybody?
Stargaze. Unfold out a blanket in your yard and stare on the stars. An excessive amount of metropolis gentle making it arduous to see the Milky Means? Attempt getting out of town limits a bit—the much less metropolis gentle, the higher the stargazing.
DIY Summer time Solstice Crafts to Have a good time the Solar
Channel your bohemian spirit. Design a DIY floral crown.
Make a suncatcher. Hit your native bead retailer, and grasp your handmade creation in a window, permitting the beads to softly deflect the sunshine into your property.
Assemble a Litha altar. Historically, a Litha altar honors the solar and the power of the summer season solstice—with symbols like yellow candles, herbs, flowers, and solar imagery.
Be a Solar Goddess. Seize some ribbon, twine, branches, and sage, and take a look at your hand at a solar wheel.
Journey-Impressed Summer time Solstice Concepts
Go berry choosing. Discover a native farm exterior town limits, and make a day of it strolling amongst the bushes and vines.
Arrange camp. Discover the right tent, collect up some wooden for a bonfire, and head for the hills.
Take a night dip. Don’t have a pool? Discover a neighborhood pool to swim by the moon’s glow. (Reside in Austin? We’re a fan of the complete moon swims at Barton Springs.)
Attempt paddleboard yoga. In true Summer time Solstice vogue, SUP yoga takes you exterior celebrating the good outdoor, is a superb train for each physique and stability, and is simply plain enjoyable.
Summer time Solstice Meals Concepts
Summer time Solstice Rituals for Reflection and Renewal
Meditate. It’s so simple as inhaling and respiratory out.
Get grounded. Sure, it’s buzzy, however for good cause. Grounding is a stylish new custom with historic roots. It reduces stress and irritation, neutralizes free radicals, improves sleep, and has been stated to assist pores and skin tone and readability.
Set intentions. Thought aim setting was for January solely? Assume once more. Honor the summer season solstice’s celebration of latest beginnings by turning over a couple of new leaves of your individual.
Begin one thing new. The summer season solstice is all about new beginnings, so now’s the right time to strive your hand at studying extra about enneagram varieties or taking on nature journaling.
This submit was final up to date on June 20, 2025 to incorporate new insights.
