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Summer solstice

Astronomical phenomenon

Summary

Astronomical phenomenon

Field	Value
holiday_name	Summer solstice
image	Summer Solstice Sunrise over Stonehenge 2005.jpg
caption	Sunrise at Stonehenge in England during the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere
observedby	Various cultures
date	June 20 or June 21
(Northern Hemisphere)
type	Cultural, astronomical
significance	Beginning of lengthening nights and shortening days
nickname	Midsummer; the Longest Day; the Shortest Night; Estival solstice
duration	1 day

(Northern Hemisphere)

and December 21 or December 22 (Southern Hemisphere)

Earth during the summer solstice in June 2017

The summer solstice or estival solstice occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). The summer solstice is the day with the longest period of daylight and shortest night of the year in that hemisphere, when the sun is at its highest position in the sky. At either pole there is continuous daylight at the time of its summer solstice. The opposite event is the winter solstice.

The summer solstice occurs during the hemisphere's summer. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the June solstice (20 or 21 June) and in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the December solstice (21 or 22 December). Since prehistory, the summer solstice has been a significant time of year in many cultures, and has been marked by festivals and rituals. Traditionally, in temperate regions (especially Europe), the summer solstice is seen as the middle of summer and referred to as "midsummer"; although today in some countries and calendars it is seen as summer's beginning.

On the summer solstice, Earth's maximum axial tilt toward the Sun is 23.44°. Likewise, the Sun's declination from the celestial equator is 23.44°. In areas outside the tropics, the sun reaches its highest elevation angle at solar noon on the summer solstice.

Diagram of Earth's seasons as seen from the north. Far left: summer [[solstice]] for the Northern Hemisphere. Front right: summer solstice for the Southern Hemisphere.

Although the summer solstice is the longest day of the year for that hemisphere, the dates of earliest sunrise and latest sunset vary by a few days. This is because Earth orbits the Sun in an ellipse, and its orbital speed varies slightly during the year.

Culture

Main article: Midsummer

The solstice being celebrated at [[Stonehenge]] in England

There is evidence that the summer solstice has been culturally important since the Neolithic era. Many ancient monuments in Europe especially, as well as parts of the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, are aligned with the sunrise or sunset on the summer solstice (see archaeoastronomy). The significance of the summer solstice has varied among cultures, but most recognize the event in some way with holidays, festivals, and rituals around that time with themes of fertility.

In the Julian calendar of the Roman Empire, the date of the summer solstice was 24 June, and Marcus Terentius Varro wrote in the 1st century BC that the Romans saw this as the middle of summer. The Julian calendar had a flaw in that the solstices and equinoxes gradually fell on earlier dates. At the First Council of Nicaea (325), the Christian Church set the date of the spring equinox to 21 March, for the purpose of calculating Easter. This also brought the date of the summer solstice forward to 20 June.

The summer solstice was seen as the middle of summer in Anglo-Saxon England and called 'midsummer'. Some Anglo-Saxon calendars placed midsummer on the older date of 24 June while others place it on 20 June.

Elsewhere in northern Europe, traditionally the summer solstice is also seen as the middle of summer and it was reckoned as the night of 23–24 June. The summer solstice continues to be seen as the middle of summer in many European cultures, but in some cultures or calendars it is seen as summer's beginning. In Sweden, midsummer is one of the year's major holidays when the country closes down as much as during Christmas.

Observances

;Traditional festivals

Saint John's Eve (Europe), including:
- Golowan (Cornwall)
- Jaanipäev (Estonia)
- Jāņi (Latvia)
- Joninės (Lithuania)
- Jónsmessa (Iceland)
- Juhannus (Finland)
Kupala Night (Slavic peoples)
Shën Gjini–Shën Gjoni, Festa e Malit/Bjeshkës, Festa e Blegtorisë, etc. (Albanians)
Summer Solstice at Stonehenge United Kingdom
Tiregān (Iran)
Xiazhi (China)
Yhyakh (Yakuts)

;Modern observances

Day of Private Reflection (Northern Ireland)
Fête de la Musique, also known as World Music Day
Fremont Solstice Parade (Fremont, Seattle, Washington, United States)
International Yoga Day
National Indigenous Peoples Day (Canada)
Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Parade (Santa Barbara, California, United States)

In folk music

"Oh at Ivan, oh at Kupala" (Ukr. Ой на Івана, ой на Купала) - Ukrainian folk song.
"Kupalinka" - (Belar. Купалінка) - Belarusian folk song
"There is a lake behind the hill" (Lith. Už kalnelio ežerėlis) - Lithuanian folk song.

Length of the day on northern summer solstice

Notes

References

"US Naval Observatory: Sunrise and Sunset Times Near the Solstices".
"The Long Story (USNO explanation)".
(2021). "The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology". Oxford University Press.
(2005). "Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of Archaeoastronomy". [[Springer Publishing]].
"Summer solstice celebrations of Christianity, Judaism, Neopaganism, etc". Religioustolerance.org.
(1976). "Time and the Calendars". Manchester University Press.
(2012). "Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History". Routledge.
(2005). "Ritual and the Rood: Liturgical Images and the Old English Poems of the Dream of the Rood Tradition". University of Toronto Press.
(2015). "The Old English Metrical Calendar (Menologium)". [[Boydell & Brewer]].
{{OEtymD. midsummer
"The Astronomical vs. Meteorological Seasons".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

summer-solstice december-observances june-observances international-observances summer-festivals

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