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I’ve at all times been a summer time lady. It’s not cozy like fall, brisk like winter, or hopeful like spring. Summer season stands by itself as a vivid, energizing time of 12 months. 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 attraction. All the pieces on the planet simply feels higher when it’s sun-kissed.
So you may think about my delight after I was requested to write down a information to celebrating the summer time solstice.
Considered one of my favourite summer time folks 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 title means “wild French daisy,” which is way 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 celebrities. 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 stunning mother-in-law is affected by a debilitating and uncommon mind illness. Now greater than ever, I discover myself leaning on the recollections of these traditions she introduced into my life. In honor of her valuable and provoking spirit, I began wanting 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 time solstice is, why it’s celebrated, and a few concepts that you just, too, can incorporate into your individual festivities.
What’s the summer time solstice?
In the course of the summer time 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 12 months (assume: extra daylight!) and the shortest evening. It at all times happens on the finish of June. This 12 months, Summer season Solstice is on Friday, June twentieth, thus starting the astronomical begin of summer time.
Why will we have fun it?
For 1000’s of years, folks have celebrated the summer time and winter solstices as markers of the planting and harvest seasons—relationship all the best way again to the Neolithic period, in line with St. Neot’s Museum. Early Pagans honored the summer time solstice as a time to glorify the Solar God, adorning themselves with garlands of herbs and flowers believed to chase away evil spirits (which they thought have been most energetic in the course of the peak of summer time). At present, 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 time solstice celebrated around the globe?
In England, folks collect collectively to observe 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 beautify 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 time solstice with a midnight solar baseball recreation and competition.
In England, crowds collect to observe 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 middle 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 time solstice with a midnight solar baseball recreation and a city-wide competition.
Need 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 12 months!
Outside Summer season Solstice Actions
Take a hike. Get off the crushed path, lace up these mountaineering boots, and put together to sweat a bit of. There’s no higher strategy to have fun summer time solstice than (a music and podcast-free) hike by way of Mom Nature, permitting the one noise to be the sound of crunching dust 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 if you happen to’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 onerous to see the Milky Method? Attempt getting out of the town limits a bit—the much less metropolis gentle, the higher the stargazing.
DIY Summer season Solstice Crafts to Rejoice the Solar
Channel your bohemian spirit. Design a DIY floral crown.
Make a suncatcher. Hit your native bead retailer, and cling 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 time solstice—with symbols like yellow candles, herbs, flowers, and solar imagery.
Be a Solar Goddess. Seize some ribbon, twine, branches, and sage, and check out your hand at a solar wheel.
Journey-Impressed Summer season Solstice Concepts
Go berry choosing. Discover a native farm exterior the 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 keen on the complete moon swims at Barton Springs.)
Attempt paddleboard yoga. In true Summer season Solstice trend, SUP yoga takes you exterior celebrating the nice open air, is a good train for each physique and stability, and is simply plain enjoyable.
Summer season Solstice Meals Concepts
Summer season 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 motive. Grounding is a stylish new custom with historic roots. It reduces stress and irritation, neutralizes free radicals, improves sleep, and has been mentioned to assist pores and skin tone and readability.
Set intentions. Thought aim setting was for January solely? Suppose once more. Honor the summer time solstice’s celebration of recent beginnings by turning over a couple of new leaves of your individual.
Begin one thing new. The summer time solstice is all about new beginnings, so now’s the right time to attempt your hand at studying extra about enneagram sorts or taking over nature journaling.
This put up was final up to date on June 20, 2025 to incorporate new insights.
