What It Is and The right way to Have a good time It

I’ve at all times been a summer time woman. It’s not cozy like fall, brisk like winter, or hopeful like spring. Summer season stands by itself as a shiny, energizing time of 12 months. It’s when happiness is only a juicy, drip-down-your-chin chunk 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. The whole lot on this planet simply feels higher when it’s sun-kissed.

So you’ll be able to think about my delight once I was requested to write down a information to celebrating the summer time solstice.

Considered one of my favourite summer time 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 title means “wild French daisy,” which is way extra her fashion.) Because the household matriarch, she inspired us to dwell 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 underneath 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 reminiscences of these traditions she introduced into my life. In honor of her valuable and provoking spirit, I began wanting into incorporating a few of her wildly great methods into my personal household of 5.

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

What’s the summer time solstice?

Throughout the summer time solstice within the northern hemisphere, the earth’s axis is tilted most in the direction of the solar, providing up the longest day of the 12 months (suppose: extra daylight!) and the shortest evening. It at all times happens on the finish of June. This 12 months, Summer season Solstice is on Friday, June twentieth, thus starting the astronomical begin of summer time. 

Why can we rejoice it?

For 1000’s of years, folks have celebrated the summer time and winter solstices as markers of the planting and harvest seasons—courting all the best way again to the Neolithic period, in response to St. Neot’s Museum. Early Pagans honored the summer time solstice as a time to glorify the Solar God, adorning themselves with garlands of herbs and flowers believed to keep off evil spirits (which they thought had been most lively throughout the peak of summer time). In the present day, these traditions dwell 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 time solstice celebrated all over the world?

In England, folks collect collectively to look at the dawn above the Heel Stone at Stonehenge. In the Nordic nations of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, they rejoice with their Midsommer festivals, every with their very own distinctive traditions (the Swedes embellish 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 time solstice with a midnight solar baseball recreation and competition. 

In England, crowds collect to look at 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 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 time solstice with a midnight solar baseball recreation and a city-wide competition.

Need to create your personal competition with out touring to the ends of the earth? Learn on for a few of our concepts to rejoice the longest day of the 12 months!

Outside Summer season Solstice Actions

• Take a hike. Get off the crushed path, lace up these mountain climbing boots, and put together to sweat just a little. There’s no higher strategy to rejoice summer time solstice than (a music and podcast-free) hike by way 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 absorb a little bit of vitamin D. And for those who’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 gentle making it exhausting to see the Milky Means? Strive getting out of town limits a bit—the much less metropolis gentle, the higher the stargazing.

DIY Summer season 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 grasp 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 time 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 right 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. (Reside in Austin? We’re a fan of the complete moon swims at Barton Springs.)
• Strive paddleboard yoga. In true Summer season Solstice trend, SUP yoga takes you outdoors celebrating the nice outside, 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 time solstice’s celebration of recent beginnings by turning over a number of new leaves of your personal.
• Begin one thing new. The summer time solstice is all about new beginnings, so now’s the right time to strive 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.