Summer Solstice By Many Names
Angel numbers 21.21 bring additional levels of converging energies to the Summer solstice, a day of joy and light. The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” always runs through my head on this longest day of the year. Yet, there are so many other symbols, names, celebratory songs, and festivals honoring the Sun, especially on this, the longest day of the year.
Like many Americans, this was never a holiday as I was growing up. Reading Shakespeare’s Midsummer Midsummer’s Night Dream was the first time I even heard about a summer holiday. It was not until I saw the play enacted on stage a few years later, that I connected the revelry with the Celtic holiday I have come to enjoy.
Summer Solstice is a major Celtic holiday. It is also celebrated throughout Europe by many names. Those of us who take an interest in Celtic tradition know the major images: Stonehenge at sunrise, bonfires the night before, general merriment. But, it was the summer working in Riga, Latvia where I had the good fortune of really see costumed people celebrating ancient traditions in a two-day celebration. Ligo Day which means celebration and Janis Day, which is St. John’s Day, the Christianization of Midsummer which during Soviet times turned back to a more cultural and less Christian celebration. The girls and young women wear laurel wreaths on their heads while the boys and young men wear oak leaf crowns, symbolizing the Oak King’s rule over summer. Folk song festivals, street fairs, all-night bonfires are all part of the celebration. Arguably, here and in Sweden this holiday is the most popular of the year.
I remember a plot from the first Star Trek TV series where Kirk and crew discover a civilization that is celebrating the Sun. Later in the episode, they discover the people are Christians from an earlier plantation-building expedition from Earth. They worship the Son. I was blown away by the insight. The Sun and the Light of God seen and lifted up as one.
May we all take time to celebrate the Sun and the Light today.
May we feel the energies of rejuvenation and growth that come with summer.
May we be grateful for the life it gives us, today and every day.
Blessed Be.