Solstice

Summer solstice began on

Monday, Jun 21 2010 at 6:28 AM CDT

I don't know, maybe we've started a tradition. We've been having friends over for refreshments and a campfire to celebrate the change of seasons of late. We've hosted a couple of each over the past three or four years of Vernal and Autumnal Equinox and Summer and Winter Solstice.

It's a simple get together for captivating conversation, collations, and a campfire. Sounds kind of boring on paper, but it's fun. We ask everyone to bring their favorite snack and it usually turns out to be a meal. We ice down a bunch of soft drinks, put up the badminton and croquet sets, light the tiki torches and do what we darn please.

Our solstice party was a couple days before solstice, and the day before Father's Day. Eldest daughter, husband and son surprised the heck out of me by showing up. I had been gone for a bit doing some last minute shopping and an unfamiliar car was in the drive, and really it knocked me back. What a great surprise to have a daughter who lives five hours away show up for Dad's Day eve.

Sol + stice derives from a combination of Latin words meaning "sun" + "to stand still." As the days lengthen, the sun rises higher and higher until it seems to stand still in the sky. As a major celestial event, the Summer Solstice results in the longest day and the shortest night of the year.

The site of the celebration, from the house looking toward the Mississippi

Awed by the great power of the sun, civilizations have for centuries celebrated the first day of summer otherwise known as the Summer Solstice, Midsummer (see Shakespeare), St. John's Day, or the Wiccan Litha.

I just got back from some errands and am surprised to see my eldest daughter, husband and son. They came up from their cabin near Garrison just for the campfire and to wish me a Happy Father's Day.

Grandson Jack takes a peek at the workings of some solar powered lights.

Kimberly, Scott and Jack start the fire, well actually Kimberly who prides herself in such things as fire-making. She is a knowledgeable about things nature.

Kimberly and Scott are joined by Kimberly's Uncle Bear. He does look Smokey, but his name is Greg-a-Bear

Lone Wolf and the Bear settle in. Lone Wolf sometimes morphs into Great Gray Owl and will tell us of plants, and animals, and the history of the land. His memory is unbelievable, which makes him appear to be extraordinarily bright.

Barbie always makes the Solstice parties memorable with lots of goodies from the kitchen.

Smokey Rachelle

Lone Wolf's bride Linda gets smoke in her eyes. I of course replied, something deep inside, cannot be denied.

The City Councilor and the Marriage Counselor debate the proper spelling of their trade.

Perhaps the most enduring modern ties with Summer Solstice were the Druids' celebration of the day as the "wedding of Heaven and Earth", resulting in the present day belief of a "lucky" wedding in June.

Girl, boy, girl, boy, girl.

Musical chairs as heavenly shaded of night are falling. It's twilight time. Two left standing to the left.

Seems like a similar photo taken shortly after the preceding, but moving to the right. Oh my.

Pagans called the Midsummer moon the "Honey Moon" for the mead made from fermented honey that was part of wedding ceremonies performed at the Summer Solstice.

Ancient Pagans celebrated Midsummer with bonfires, when couples would leap through the flames, believing their crops would grow as high as the couples were able to jump.

Facing west toward the light, but all faces face toward the center of the burning ring of fire.

The Celts & Slavs celebrated the first day of summer with dancing & bonfires to help increase the sun's energy. The Chinese marked the day by honoring Li, the Chinese Goddess of Light.
Spirit gatherings or festivals are also common in June, when groups assemble to light a sacred fire, and stay up all night to welcome the dawn.
Midsummer was thought to be a time of magic, when evil spirits were said to appear. To thwart them, Pagans often wore protective garlands of herbs and flowers. One of the most powerful of them was a plant called 'chase-devil', which is known today as St. John's Wort and still used by modern herbalists as a mood stabilizer.

Rainy Day Women and Men

Press close, bare-bosomed Night! Press close, magnetic,

nourishing Night!

Night of south winds! Night of the large, few stars!

Still, nodding Night! Mad, naked, Summer Night! ~Walt Whitman

"Now we did not seem so all alone"...once we sent the children home.

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world. ~Ada Louise Huxtable