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How are you spending the summer solstice?
Front-Ranger:
Thanks for the information, friend! So, first let's have a baptism, and then let's have a bonfire!!
The baptism--
Front-Ranger:
Oops, I almost forgot to post the bonfire!!
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2009, 10:05:37 am ---Today is the 24th of June, the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Once upon a time, due to errors in calculation, it was believed that today was the Summer Solstice. The day was celebrated with bonfires to ensure that the sun would return, as from now on, in the Northern Hemisphere, the days inexorably begin to grow shorter, until the Winter Solstice in December, the shortest day of the year. When Christianity gained power, it usurped the ancient pagan celebration of the solstice and substituted the birthday of John the Baptist to make it easier for pagans to accept the new Christian dispensation. Obviously no one knows on what day of the year John the Baptisit was born.
--- End quote ---
I IMed with a friend in Quebec this morning. He said St. John the Baptist Day is a legal holiday there -- he's off work and there are concerts in the park.
delalluvia:
Sorry, I was in Chicago at the time of the Solstice. My friend doesn't celebrate, so I didn't do anything except mentally note the occasion. I saw an occult shop right down the street from where I was staying with her, but I didn't get a minute to myself to run down to buy incense. Then after vacation, getting back to a hectic work schedule and finally getting laid off, I haven't had the presence of mind to get my spiritual act together - for which the gods are not happy, I'm sure, but I need to be focused on them and not me, and it's kinda hard right now. I did watch my holiday movie A Midsummer's Night Dream but have yet to do my regular ritual and here it is July already. :-\
Front-Ranger:
Last year at the Solstice I was visiting the ancient standing stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis. It was daylight there until 11 pm at night, and there were about 30 people celebrating, walking and talking among the stones, playing pan pipes, drums, and guitars, and photographing or measuring the stones. This year, I'll probably spend most of my time thinking about last year!
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