What It Is and How to Celebrate It

I’ve at all times been a summer season lady. It’s not cozy like fall, brisk like winter, or hopeful like spring. Summer time stands by itself as a vibrant, 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. Every little thing on this planet simply feels higher when it’s sun-kissed.

So you possibly can think about my delight after I was requested to put in writing 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 way in which, began calling herself “Marguerite” as a result of she felt it suited her higher. (The title means “wild French daisy,” which is much extra her model.) Because the household matriarch, she inspired us to stay creatively and shade 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 strategy 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 valuable and galvanizing spirit, I began trying 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?

In the course of the summer season 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 time Solstice is on Friday, June twentieth, thus starting the astronomical begin of summer season. 

Why can we rejoice it?

For 1000’s of years, individuals have celebrated the summer season and winter solstices as markers of the planting and harvest seasons—relationship all the way in which again to the Neolithic period, in line 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 keep off evil spirits (which they thought had been most lively through the peak of summer season). At the 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 world wide?

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 beautify 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 recreation 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 heart 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 recreation and a city-wide pageant.

Need 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 12 months!

Out of doors Summer time Solstice Actions

• Take a hike. Get off the overwhelmed path, lace up these mountaineering boots, and put together to sweat a bit of. There’s no higher method 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 dust 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 when 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 laborious to see the Milky Approach? Strive getting out of town limits a bit—the much less metropolis gentle, the higher the stargazing.

DIY Summer time 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 power 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 time Solstice Concepts

• Go berry selecting. Discover a native farm outdoors town limits, and make a day of it strolling amongst the bushes 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. (Stay in Austin? We’re keen on the complete moon swims at Barton Springs.)
• Strive paddleboard yoga. In true Summer time Solstice vogue, SUP yoga takes you outdoors celebrating the good open air, is a good train for each physique and stability, and is simply plain enjoyable. 

Summer time Solstice Meals Concepts

Summer time 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 purpose. Grounding is a classy new custom with historical roots. It reduces stress and irritation, neutralizes free radicals, improves sleep, and has been stated to assist pores and skin tone and readability. 
• Set intentions. Thought aim setting was for January solely? Assume 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 right time to strive your hand at studying extra about enneagram sorts or taking on nature journaling.

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