Have fun the Solar: A Joyful, Soulful Information to the Summer season Solstice

I’ve all the time been a summer season woman. It’s not cozy like fall, brisk like winter, or hopeful like spring. Summer season 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 allure. All the pieces on this planet simply feels higher when it’s sun-kissed.

So you possibly can think about my delight after I was requested to jot down a information to celebrating the summer season solstice.

One in all my favourite summer season individuals 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 way extra her fashion.) Because the household matriarch, she inspired us to stay creatively and coloration outdoors the strains, 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 celebs. Within the hotter months, it was maypoles, flower crowns, magic spells, and midsummer revelry. It was magical and memorable. It taught me to method the world with open-hearted exuberance and childlike whimsy.

Years later, my lovely mother-in-law is affected by a debilitating and uncommon mind illness. Now greater than ever, I discover myself leaning on the recollections 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 personal 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 all the time happens on the finish of June. This yr, Summer season Solstice is on Friday, June twentieth, thus starting the astronomical begin of summer season. 

Why will we rejoice it?

For hundreds of years, individuals have celebrated the summer season and winter solstices as markers of the planting and harvest seasons—relationship all the best way again to the Neolithic period, in accordance 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 beat back evil spirits (which they thought had been most energetic through the top of summer season). Right this moment, these traditions stay on, with solstice celebrations symbolizing new life, gentle, renewal, fertility, and abundance—each inside ourselves and on this planet round us.

How is the summer season solstice celebrated around the globe?

In England, individuals collect collectively to look at the dawn above the Heel Stone at Stonehenge. In the Nordic international locations of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, they rejoice 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 gentle bonfires and soak in saunas.) In the meantime, simply 150 miles south of the arctic circle in Fairbanks, Alaska, they rejoice every summer season solstice with a midnight solar baseball sport and pageant. 

In England, crowds collect to look at the solar rise above the Heel Stone at Stonehenge—a timeless solstice custom. Throughout the Nordic international locations of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, Midsommer festivals take middle 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 sport and a city-wide pageant.

Wish to create your personal pageant with out touring to the ends of the earth? Learn on for a few of our concepts to rejoice the longest day of the yr!

Out of doors Summer season Solstice Actions

• Take a hike. Get off the crushed path, lace up these climbing boots, and put together to sweat a bit. There’s no higher approach to rejoice 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 ft.
• Bask within the solar’s glory. Get outdoors and permit your pores and skin to absorb a little bit of vitamin D. And in case you’re hanging outdoors for greater than only a few 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 gentle making it exhausting to see the Milky Manner? Strive getting out of town limits a bit—the much less metropolis gentle, the higher the stargazing.

DIY Summer season Solstice Crafts to Have fun the Solar

• Channel your bohemian spirit. Design a DIY floral crown.
• Make a suncatcher. Hit your native bead retailer, and cling your handmade creation in a window, permitting the beads to softly deflect the sunshine into your property.
• 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 check out your hand at a solar wheel.

Journey-Impressed Summer season Solstice Concepts

• Go berry choosing. Discover a native farm outdoors 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 complete moon swims at Barton Springs.)
• Strive paddleboard yoga. In true Summer season Solstice vogue, SUP yoga takes you outdoors celebrating the good outdoor, is a superb train for each physique and stability, and is simply plain enjoyable. 

Summer season Solstice Meals Concepts

Summer season Solstice Rituals for Reflection and Renewal

• Meditate. It’s so simple as inhaling and respiratory out.
• Get grounded. Sure, it’s buzzy, however for good cause. Grounding is a stylish new custom with historic 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 aim setting was for January solely? Suppose once more. Honor the summer season solstice’s celebration of latest beginnings by turning over a number of new leaves of your personal.
• Begin one thing new. The summer season solstice is all about new beginnings, so now’s the proper time to strive your hand at studying extra about enneagram varieties or taking on nature journaling.

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