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Today, at 4:59 p.m. is the solstice - the longest day of the year.  This occurs "because the seasons are caused by the 23.5 percent tilt of the earth's axis as it rotates like an old-fashioned top with the North Pole pointing in a fixed direction near the North Star as it also revolves around the sun."

 

There are all kinds of rituals for this celebration, both historically and today.  Around the world, there were pagan, Celtic, Germanic and Slavic solstice celebrations ranging in bonfires, "love oracles and country couples... leaping over flaming branches for luck."  These people believed that midsummer was the time "when the sun reaches the peak of its power, the earth is green and holds the promise of a bountiful hrvest.  The Mother Goddess is viewed as heavily pregnant (oh my, I was 32 years ago!!!), and the God is at the apex of his manhood and is honored in his guise as the Supreme Sun".  The Romans celebrated Vestalia for 7 days in honor the of goddess of the hearth.  And the Chinese celebrated the union of male & female forces of yin and yang. 

 

On Turtle Island (America), the solstice was celebrated with the sacred Sun Dance by the Plains Indians, which included fasting, dancing and singing.  Excerpts from George Snyder, Sonoma West Times and News

 
   

 


 
 
iliketiedye on
Re: The Solstice
I'm dancing ...... just cause it is summer ..... finally ..... !  Smiley

Peace. J.
ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
Woo hoo again.  Yes, definitely summer.  And it's hotter than hades here.  But our nights are still pretty cool so we can cool off the house.  Have a better day...

 

Namaste, A.

shadeofgray on
Re: The Solstice
I celebrated with hot dogs for lunch... real ones with meat in them (Well, Oscar Mayer fat free hotdogs)!
ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
Oh yum...I will go for two years or so without eating something like that and then have this incredible craving for a nice, yummy, juicy hot dog, with the works, including yellow mustard (so plebe) and relish!!!
dieselgypsy on
Re: The Solstice
happy solstice to ya!!!!!!!!!!love the fire flies, makes it feel so much more like summer when you see the fireflies out and about, do you all have them in californy

they have such a mystical quality about them, i always invision them as fairies with little lanterns flying around.

my day has not be a whole lot of fun but interesting, wrote about it on diesel gypsy blog. but i love this time of year.looking forwards to getting home and having the ole man fire up the grill he got for pappy day........

take care, you will love this fire fly blog because it is wider and you can fit more stuff on it.........take care

blessed be

ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
You had the fireflies before I did, so you were my inspiration.  Yes, I love them.  No, we don't have them in Californy.  But I grew up with them, in the countryside outside Philadelphia (Buck County).  Yes, I also see them as little fairies. 

Thanks for the support about the blog...I love the fireflies.

Namaste, enjoy the Solstice.  It is hotter than Hades out here ;~)

alicestreet on
Re: The Solstice
we used to squish them on our fingers and turn their poor little dead bodies into glowing gemstones. Children are sooooooooooooo cruel. I am sure you never did anything like that. 
ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
Oh yes, I did Naranja...mean old me when I was a cruel little kiddie. 
dieselgypsy on
Re: The Solstice
we use to catch em and put in quart jars, now we just hit them with the windshield, their juices light up the wind shield right nicely..........there seems to be a shortage of then of late, when I was a kid in the Ozark mtn. they were everywhere now I am lucky to see a half dozen of them...prob. pesticides people use on their yards........anyhoo I love those little guys, but as bugs, they are pretty as bugs go. I hate creepy crawly's and spiders are the worse.....i don't want to even go there.
alicestreet on
Re: The Solstice
my cat eats spiders. I call her renfield
ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
And young M used to know Renfield very well...haha.  Geez, Naranja.  I am truly melting around here.  It was 103 yesterday and might be hotter today.  If you don't hear from me, it's because I am a puddle...no fooling.
alicestreet on
Re: The Solstice
i never drink....vine (bela lugosi)
ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
loved those movies...enjoy your evening, even if you are not drinking 'vine' - just bluuud...

What I had been referring to above was the newer Dracula movie, the one with Gary Oldman, and Tom Waits playing Renfield.

dieselgypsy on
Re: The Solstice
i really need to have my house sprayed for bugs since we are on the road all the time, i don't mind the web makers cause they stay put, i hate the hunters that crawl all over the place, they seem to like our middle bed room and the bathroom  that is where I kill them all the time.........my eldest daughter when she was living at home always had to check her bed to make sure she had no visiters, now hey someone needs to live in my space while we are gone.... I have to set mice traps when i get home cause they the mice like to live in my house too.............hate that
ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
Yeah, it would be better to have someone stay in your space than spray...I just found out from Saik the other day that the makers of Roundup (which we had always been told was OK, even from normally organic folks) paid for the research touting the benefits of Roundup, but that actually it might be implicated in bee colony collapse.  I've always been organic, but lately as I've gotten older and we've had more and more problems with a locust tree out front, I got lazy and began using it.  Wow...I don't think so...I'll dig those boogers out.
alicestreet on
Re: The Solstice
I am going to buy one of those torches for weeds but it won't work for things near wood.

I hear that vinegar will kill weeds, I wonder if alcohol would do the sane, rubbing alcohol or some cheap rotgut. I am totally against chemical weed  and insect killers. If something can't manage on it's own it deserves to die ( plants) and regular vacuuming will keep down the spiders.

However in Montgomery Alabama we had roaches the size of mice( called palmettos; hahahah a roach by any other name..... and I would have used atomic power if I had to.

As for the Tom Waits comment. duh...... renfield. double duh. Know any redhead jokes?
ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
Damn...I was the one who said vinegar.  So far it hasn't done much of anything to kill weeds.  Those boogers.  I was out weeding today.

Love you Naranja!  And I love the book!  (yeah, I gotta begin collecting redhead jokes now ;~)

ubu13 on
Re: The Solstice
Yeah, I think there are shortages of lots of nice bugs, but probably a proliferation of the bad bugs, thanks to the environmental degradations going on...I love those little guys too.  Alicestreet's cat eats spiders, so you will have to borrow her ;~)

 
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