What It Is and How one can Have a good time It

I’ve at all times been a summer season woman. 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 chew 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. Every little thing on the earth simply feels higher when it’s sun-kissed.

So you’ll be able to think about my delight once I was requested to put in writing a information to celebrating the summer season solstice.

One in all my favourite summer season folks is my mother-in-law—a lady 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 model.) Because the household matriarch, she inspired us to reside creatively and colour outdoors the traces, 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 below 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 strategy 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 reminiscences of these traditions she introduced into my life. In honor of her treasured and galvanizing spirit, I began wanting into incorporating a few of her wildly fantastic methods into my personal household of 5.

Learn on for a glance into what the summer season solstice is, why it’s celebrated, and a few concepts that you simply, too, can incorporate into your individual festivities. 

What’s the summer season solstice?

Throughout the summer season solstice within the northern hemisphere, the earth’s axis is tilted most in direction of the solar, providing up the longest day of the yr (assume: extra daylight!) and the shortest evening. It at all times 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 a good time it?

For hundreds of years, folks have celebrated the summer season and winter solstices as markers of the planting and harvest seasons—courting all the best way again to the Neolithic period, in line with 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 push back evil spirits (which they thought have been most energetic in the course of the peak of summer season). As we speak, these traditions reside on, with solstice celebrations symbolizing new life, mild, renewal, fertility, and abundance—each inside ourselves and on the earth round us.

How is the summer season solstice celebrated world wide?

In England, folks collect collectively to observe the dawn above the Heel Stone at Stonehenge. In the Nordic nations of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, they have a good time with their Midsommer festivals, every with their very own distinctive traditions (the Swedes enhance their hair with flowers and dance round Maypoles, whereas the Finns mild bonfires and soak in saunas.) In the meantime, simply 150 miles south of the arctic circle in Fairbanks, Alaska, they have a good time every summer season 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 nations 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 recreation 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 a good time the longest day of the yr!

Outside Summer time Solstice Actions

• Take a hike. Get off the crushed path, lace up these mountain climbing boots, and put together to sweat a bit. There’s no higher option to have a good time summer season solstice than (a music and podcast-free) hike by means of Mom Nature, permitting the one noise to be the sound of crunching grime beneath your toes.
• Bask within the solar’s glory. Get outdoors and permit your pores and skin to take in a little bit of vitamin D. And in case you’re hanging outdoors for greater than just some 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 mild making it exhausting to see the Milky Method? Strive getting out of the town limits a bit—the much less metropolis mild, 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 hold your handmade creation in a window, permitting the beads to softly deflect the sunshine into your private home.
• Assemble a Litha altar. Historically, a Litha altar honors the solar and the vitality 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 outdoors the town limits, and make a day of it strolling amongst the timber and vines.
• Arrange camp. Discover the proper 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. (Dwell in Austin? We’re a fan of the total moon swims at Barton Springs.)
• Strive paddleboard yoga. In true Summer time Solstice vogue, SUP yoga takes you outdoors celebrating the good open air, is a superb train for each physique and steadiness, 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 respiration out.
• Get grounded. Sure, it’s buzzy, however for good cause. Grounding is a stylish new custom with historical 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 purpose setting was for January solely? Assume once more. Honor the summer season solstice’s celebration of recent 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 proper time to attempt your hand at studying extra about enneagram varieties or taking over nature journaling.

This put up was final up to date on June 20, 2025 to incorporate new insights.