Happy First Day of Summer! The Summer Solstice, a “Quarter Day” of the Earth’s revolution around the sun. Today, the Sun is at its maximum distance away from the Celestial Equator – making it appear at its highest position in the sky all year. This is the longest day as well, a little over 15 hours long here in Western Pennsylvania.
During the Solstice, the Sun’s Ecliptic Pathway is at its Northern peak, the Tropic of Cancer, as per the Glossary of Astronomical Phenomena:
The summer solstice occurs when the Sun and Earth are at Solstice and the Sun’s elliptic pathway is in the observer’s hemisphere. At the same time, the opposite hemisphere is having its winter solstice. During the Summer Solstice, the day is the longest it will be all year. The most direct sunlight (shadows with a 90° angle at noon) is at the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere.
Glossary of Astronomical Phenomena
Many cultures in the northern latitudes have holidays around the Summer Solstice. This is the height of the growing season in the Northern European climates. Later this week is a holiday known as Midsummer in many European countries. It occurs on June 24th. This was later co-opted into St. John’s Day. Norse and Germanic peoples celebrated Litha. Additionally, both the Ancient Greeks and Romans had festivals celebrating Kronus and Vestalia respectively. In Ancient China, the yin or feminine force was venerated. Here in the United States, many Native American/American Indian tribes celebrate the solstice in their own unique ways across the continent.
Right now, mushrooms are sprouting in the forests and the fields are coming alive with lightning bugs:
I guess you might call them fireflies but here they’re lightning bugs!
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