Summer Solstice - When "the Sun Stands Still"

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                                        Summer Solstice - When "the Sun Stands Still"





Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic
News
June 19, 2008

On Friday, June 20, the summer of 2008 will begin in earnest across the Northern Hemisphere, with the longest day of the year.

Before the sun sets on the June solstice, get the facts on why it occurs and how people throughout history have celebrated the event.

—The word solstice's Latin roots mean "sun stands still," an apt description of how the astronomical event appears from Earth.

Since ancient times people have followed the movement of the sun as it rises, crosses the sky, and sets along a path that changes incrementally throughout the year.

For a few days surrounding the solstice, however, our star seems to rise and set at the same locations. It also hovers at the same noontime spot, pausing before its trajectory begins its incremental shift until year's end—the December solstice.

—The "summer solstice" should be called the "June solstice," because it is actually the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite the reversed seasons, the event has long been observed south of the Equator as well.

—Winter and summer occur largely because the planet is tilted on an axis running through the poles at an angle of 23.5 degrees. As the planet orbits the sun, each hemisphere receives varying amounts of light and warmth determined by the direction in which it is tilted: summer when tilted towards the sun and winter when tilted away.

(Read more about Earth's orbit.)

On June 20, 2008, the North Pole will tilt most directly toward the sun, so that the noon sun appears at its highest point in the sky—nearly directly overhead. This is the year's longest day in terms of daylight hours.

(Related story: "In Scandinavia, Solstice Means Fun in the Midnight Sun" [June 21, 2005])

At the same time, in the Southern Hemisphere, the pole is tilted farthest away from the sun, and the June solstice falls in winter, marking the shortest and darkest day of the year.

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June 19, 2008—lames illuminate thousands of revelers in a cave in Zugarramurdi, Spain, during a 1998 Aquelarre, or Witch Coven.

Held on or near the summer solstice, the festival commemorates the alleged witches who used the cave in centuries past—any of whom died by fire during the Basque witch trials of the 1600s.

For millennia the summer solstice has been embraced as a time of rebirth and hope, and as a herald of abundant food and warm temperatures to come (summer solstice facts).

Falling this year on Friday, June 20, in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year is still regarded by many as a day of mystical and religious significance—and the cause for many a celebration.

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With a pentagram burning in the background, a costumed girl rests during a 2005 pagan summer solstice ceremony in Milton Keynes, England.

Held every year during the full moon closest to summer solstice, the Milton Keynes celebration also features a bonfire and stone circle—staples of pagan and witchcraft festivities.

Modern pagans typically revere nature and center their revelries around season changes.

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A Hopi Indian boy rests after a butterfly dance during the 2003 summer solstice at the Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico. Performed by children, the dance is a prayer for rain and health, and a celebration of the butterfly's pollination of flowers.

For a few days around the summer solstice, the sunrise aligns with an ancient solstice marker in the park, which invites a different Native American tribe to perform each year. In 2008, the festival's dancers will be from New Mexico's Acoma tribe.

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Swinging sparklers and garlanded with herbs, women parade in Jastarnia, Poland, during the 2006 summer solstice.

In central and eastern European countries, pagan solstice festivals often honor Kupala, the Slavic goddess of water, herbs, sex, and midsummer.

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Each summer solstice the sunlight floods the bottom of an ancient well near Aswān, Egypt, as shown in an undated photo.

During the solstice the sun is nearly directly overhead the city—a fact the Greek scholar Eratosthenes used to help calculate the circumference of Earth in the third century B.C.

The city's position just slightly north of the Tropic of Cancer—the circle of latitude that receives solstice sunlight at a 90-degree angle—skewed his calculations, but not by much.

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It's mind over madness as New Yorkers greet the sun at the annual, all-day solstice yoga fest in Times Square
in 2007.

Best known for a winter festivity—New Year's Eve—the vast intersection has hosted the summer stretch-a-thon since 2003, when just a handful of practitioners showed up. In 2007 more than 800 people registered.

The 2008 event will be held on June 21, the day after the solstice.

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A reveler atop a horizontal block called a lintel welcomes the summer solstice sunrise at England's Stonehenge in 2006.

Aligned with the first rays of the summer solstice, the 5,000-year-old monument was likely a gathering site for longest-day celebrations—and still is.

The often raucous annual festival was banned in 1985 but restarted in 2000. The event now attracts roughly 25,000 people looking for a rare chance to touch the megaliths—though standing on top of them is decidedly against the rules.



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/photogalleries/solstice-photos/index.html

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Swedes dance as they celebrate the "Midsommar evening" (Midsummer) 22 June 2007 in the Tyreso Castle, located 27 kms south-east of Stockholm.

The midsummer marks the astronomical beginning of Summer 21 June.

Midsummer, may refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice and the diverse celebrations of it around the world, but more often refers to European celebrations that accompany
the summer solstice, or to Western festivals that take place in June and are usually related to
Saint John the Baptist.

In Sweden the holiday is three-day long

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CELEBRATING AT TRA, IRELAND

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TARA

SUNRISE AT ST. PATRICK'S WELL

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BARCELONA, SPAIN

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NEW YORK

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Hovenweep National Monument:

This spectacular sunset was taken during the 2004 summer solstice at Hovenweep National Monument (HNM). Hovenweep National Monument protects five prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border.

The "sun room", a rectangular room attached to southern side of this tower, could have been used to mark the equinoxes and solstices.

Beams of light shine through portholes illuminating lintels on doorways in the room.

Credit: Troy Cline

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In Ancient Egypt, summer solstice was the most important day of the year. The sun was at its highest and the Nile River was beginning to rise. Inundation of the Nile

Special ceremonies were held to honor the Goddess Isis. Egyptians believed that Isis was mourning for her dead husband, Osiris, and that her tears made the Nile rise and well over.�

Accurately predicting the floods was of such vital importance that the appearance of Sirius, which occurs around the time of the summer solstice, was recognized as the beginning of the Egyptian New Year.

In ancient Egyptian mythology, the solar deity Horus defeated his uncle, Set, the Egyptian Lord of darkness and evil at this time of the year. This is linked with rebirth and resurrection. With this victory, divine order and fertility were restored in Egypt and it was thought that this event allowed the Nile floods to come, bringing life back to the Nile valley.

It was the hope of every Pharaoh of Egypt that upon his death he would travel safely through the Duat, the Egyptian afterworld, and "come into the light of day" in the kingdom of Ra, the Sun god, and join with that great god in his solar boat to become one of the imperishable stars.� Ra is one of the gods honored at the time of the Summer Solstice along with Horus.