Summer Solstice
Summer Solstice thoughts, symbols, and ritual ideas follow. May your growth be rampant, your rainfall be plenty, and may the summer sun radiate joy, pleasure, and plenty upon you during this season of light.
This year, the highest point of the sun, the Summer Solstice, occurs on June 20th at 11:32 pm EST. It seems funny that the sun is peaking in the middle of the night, but that's astronomy for you.
Litha to the Celts, is the longest day of the year, the peak of summer, the time when worship and adoration and gratitude for the sun were expressed with revelry by day, and bonfires long into the night, bringing the fiery sun into the darkest hours.
Similar in nature to the festivities of May Day, but with a deeper, more mature flavor. the solstice is a turning point. Ever since mid winter, the days have been eating longer. But now, that changes, the moementum shifts.From Summer Solstice on, every single day will be a little bit shorter. So while there is still great celebration and basking and joy in the height of the summer, there is also the awareness that the very next turn of the wheel begins the first of the harvest festivals. Lughnasadh or LĂșnasa in modern Irish, on August 2nd or so, precisely halfway between the Summer Solstice and Autumnal Equinox.
Litha is the height of celebration and j