Toast the summer solstice
Cheers to the longest day of the year. How will you celebrate the summer solstice? A trip to the beach, dinner from the grill, maybe a little yoga — a nice “sun salutation”?
Solstice commemorations are about as old as man; many civilizations considered this a powerful, magical time in nature.
Did you know:
- North of the equator today, daylight lasts longer than 12 hours. South of the equator, less than 12. Note the high arc of the sun around noon, and check out your shadow. It’s your shortest noontime shadow of the year.
- Summers are hot not because Earth is closer to the sun, but because it’s tilted where sunrays hit it more directly.
- June 20 solstice celebrations include feasts and festivals, bonfires, maypoles, yoga in Times Square, and many parades. Fremont, Wash.’s parade includes the Solstice Cyclists: Body-painted (as in clothing-optional) bicyclists who “cast a spell of joy, hope, and rebirth that spreads from Fremont to the entire universe.”
- Modern-day druids still gather at England’s Stonehenge today. Contrary to popular belief, they didn’t create it; Stonehenge — built to follow the sun’s annual progress — preexisted Celt and Druid arrival.
- It’s not just Stonehenge. Ancient Egyptians also built with the sun in mind; if you stand at the Sphinx on the summer solstice and gaze toward the two facing pyramids, the sun sets exactly midway between.
- Poor Galileo was forced to recant his theory that Earth revolves around the sun on the summer solstice of 1633.
- Other planets have differently timed summer solstices. Mars is every two years. Summers on Uranus can last 42 years. Venus has almost no tilt, so seasons hardly happen at all.
- The sun gets steadily brighter, and is about 40 percent more luminous than when Earth began. At this rate, in another billion years its intensity will literally boil away the oceans.
- Nature reigns supreme. Perhaps today we should humbly raise our glasses skyward in sun-worship. Then hit the beach while we can.
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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who prefers the winter solstice. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.