__
Of course it’s just the beginning of summer, but it’s the midpoint of the solar cycle. Per Wikipedia:
The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since Neolithic times. The concentration of the observance is not on the day as we reckon it, commencing at midnight or at dawn, as it is customary for cultures following lunar calendars to place the beginning of the day on the previous eve at dusk at the moment when the Sun has set…
In the 7th century, Saint Eligius (died 659/60) warned the recently converted inhabitants of Flanders against the age-old pagan solstice celebrations. According to the Vita by his companion Ouen, he’d say: “No Christian on the feast of Saint John or the solemnity of any other saint performs solestitia [summer solstice rites] or dancing or leaping or diabolical chants.”
As Christianity entered pagan areas, midsummer celebrations came to be often borrowed and transferred into new Christian holidays, often resulting in celebrations that mixed Christian traditions with traditions derived from pagan Midsummer festivities. The 13th-century monk of Winchcomb, Gloucestershire, who compiled a book of sermons for the feast days, recorded how St. John’s Eve was celebrated in his time:
Let us speak of the revels which are accustomed to be made on St. John’s Eve, of which there are three kinds. On St. John’s Eve in certain regions the boys collect bones and certain other rubbish, and burn them, and therefrom a smoke is produced on the air. They also make brands and go about the fields with the brands. Thirdly, the wheel which they roll.
__
The fires, explained the monk of Winchcombe, were to drive away dragons, which were abroad on St. John’s Eve, poisoning springs and wells. The wheel that was rolled downhill he gave its explicitly solstitial explanation: The wheel is rolled to signify that the sun then rises to the highest point of its circle and at once turns back; thence it comes that the wheel is rolled.
__
On St John’s Day 1333 Petrarch watched women at Cologne rinsing their hands and arms in the Rhine “so that the threatening calamities of the coming year might be washed away by bathing in the river.”
So: bone-fires, leaping, chanting and mass bathing to drive away the dragons of calamity. There’s certainly enough calamities threatening this year — and we should’ve started the rites last night!
(P.S. for our readers in the Southern Hemisphere: Happy Winter Solstice!)
Viva BrisVegas
I hate winter!!!
JGabriel
And, appropriately enough, we’re supposed to hit the mid-90s in NYC today — brought to us by the dragonfires of calamity mayhap?
.
Schlemizel
what about the readers living on the equator? They get to celebrate the same old thing every day?
geg6
As an atheist, I find the pagan rights to be much more moving and inspiring than any of the dozens of Christian rituals I experienced while trying to figure out what, if any, spirituality I may have. For me, that love, reverence and respect for nature in all her glory that pagans celebrated (and still do) had more meaning and love for humanity and the universe than the Bible, the Koran or any other religious books and their adherents put together.
Happy solstice BJer!
JPL
Summer has settled in and hot and dry temperatures are going to be around for a few months. It’s hot in GA in the summertime and how I wish it would rain.
WereBear
Happy Solstice to all, whichever it might be…
On the Solstice, we can all be pagans if we want to!
Suezboo
A quick weather report from us in the Bottom Half.
Snow on the mountains but a nice fine sunshiny day.
cathyx
Here is is 4:45am and the horizon is getting brighter. By 5:00am it will be full on morning and no need for headlights. I love living this far north.
Elizabelle
DC area readers: putting out the word on this: New Orleans Funk and Roots Rock at the State Theatre in Falls Church tonight. Thinking on going … State’s a great venue to see live music, and lotso good brews.
Honey Island Swamp Band; Bonerama opens
$16 at door.
One could do worse for ringing in summer.
beltane
As I have become like Demeter, going into a deep malaise every winter, the Summer Solstice is always a bit sad for me. If the Winter Solstice is when I breath a sigh of relief, the Summer Solstice is when I start to watch with dread the sun setting a little bit towards the south every evening.
Beautiful morning here in Vermont with temperatures forecast to reach the lower 90s. We could use some rain.
bjacques
NL: Weak sun today, high 60s, rain on the way tomorrow. Time to fire up the wicker man.
Winter is icumen in
Lhude sing goddam
Raineth drop and staineth slop
And how the wind doth ram.
dr. bloor
As Grandma Bloor always said, you can never have too much pitching and mass bathing.
Litlebritdifrnt
@geg6:
As a pagan I agree with you!
Elizabelle
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Jefferson et al found God in nature.
Not sitting in pews with other conformists.
Much better to revere and be grateful for the beauty of nature and this short little life than to fear a god that (mostly) men have brought down to their own shabby level.
Elizabelle
per web ads: is it Elizabeth Warren’s birthday today?
Hope she gets a grand present in November. (Also a present to Scott Brown. Free him up for whatever he wants to do next.)
Amazes me she’s not pulling away more in polls.
Is it statewide town vs. gown?
beltane
@Elizabelle: I think it’s that Scott Brown appeals to suburban white males, of which there are many in Mass.
Hill Dweller
@Elizabelle: Brown is scared to debate her. He keeps making all these absurd demands, including a vow from Ted Kennedy’s widow not to endorse Warren, before he’ll agree to a debate.
As for the closeness of the race, there are ignorant people everywhere. People all over the country have been voting against their self-interests for decades.
Groucho48
Song for Midsummer Day
youtu.be/VBbXKsKXyNU
Elizabelle
Ah. Well, may she pull away by this fall.
rikyrah
New BLoomberg poll out: President’s leading 53-40 over Willard.
Paula68154
Speaking of religion, did BJ discuss how a Louisiana state congressman intimated Islamic School of Greater New Orleans to withdraw their request for the state’s school voucher program. According to the article, the state okays the use of education vouchers for Christian schools that teach the world according to the bible, but freaks out when if goes to an Islamist school. The congressman compares Islam to Scientology.
So now the government of LA decides what religions are on the “approved” list that are eligible to receive state funds. I wonder if there are any Wiccan private schools in LA?
Um, anyone else smell a civil rights suit in Bobbeh Jindal’s future?
Here’s the article:
thinkprogress.org/education/2012/06/12/498203/louisiana-vouchers-islam/
This is why we can’t have nice things.
No one could have predicted.
Rafer Janders
Or, as I call it, Saturday night.
runt
What? No Wicker Man?
bemused
@cathyx:
I love hearing the birds start to sing at 4 am and daylight lingering until 9 pm or so. It’s a gift to savor knowing it will be dark by 4 pm in December, shudder.
ruemara
I think I’ll try to ground myself a bit, and enjoy the solstice, but I haven’t had any energy or will to do any ritual in years. It should be nice. Other than that, I have to go work a Solstice event and take pictures. Maybe the metaphysics will leak through my camera.
mclaren
As Republicans and obot lesser-of-two-evils fools drive us continually back into regressive and barbarism, American can look forward sometime soon to burning a human sacrifice in a wicker man in order to drive away the evil dragons.
The human sacrifice will, of course, be someone despised by the tribe…someone who has enraged the community by using inappropriate logic and unwelcome facts. Someone like…me.
Steeplejack
Forecasts have been revised here in NoVa for a high of 101° today and 100° tomorrow. Yikes! It’s already 91°. I have deployed the ancient, wheezy air conditioner, which really needs to be replaced, and that is helping a little. I think it puts out air about one degree cooler than the outside air, but it does seem to reduce the humidity, which helps a lot.
I am thinking about a road trip tomorrow to escape the heat. What is the point of being semi-unemployed if you can’t break out of the rut? So I am thinking about putting the freelance work on hold and driving to Colonial Beach, VA. It’s a couple of hours from here, and there are several routes through interesting country to choose from. And the air conditioner in the car really works.
. . . WTF?! I just checked the forecast for Colonial Beach, and it’s supposed to be hotter there than it is here tomorrow—101°! Hmm, maybe Annapolis? Or maybe inland, toward Shenandoah.
Maude
@Steeplejack:
Antarctica.