Making a promise to Mother Nature to do something to improve the environment.

6. Exchanging magical gifts with fellow Pagans.

7. Exchanging songs, stories and poems with other people.

Summer Solstice was celebrated by the Slavs, the Celts and many Germanic tribes, with massive bonfires a main feature of the festivities. The Druids celebrated it as the marriage of Heaven and Earth. Customs and rituals were performed all over Europe, and over time Summer Solstice evolved into a night of fire festivals and love magic. Oracles were consulted, predictions w

I am a Christian, and I’ve always been interested in Summer Solstice and the Pagan religion. I remember a horror film called “Spellbinder”, and the climactic scene was based around Summer Solstice. Since the advent of Christianity some 2000 years ago there is a view that ancient religions such as Paganism are inspired, controlled or even led by Satan. Thus solstice celebrations are rejected because they are viewed as Satanic in origin.

But this isn’t a true reflection of an old religion.

All over the world and throughout history the month of June has featured a number of religious and spiritual days, mostly linked to the Summer Solstice. Although people living in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate their summer solstice on December 21, the cultural and historical information about this date is still relevant.

At this point I want to make an observation - Christianity has incorporated Midsummer into the calendar, observing the feast day of St John the Baptist on June 24. It’s thought that this is because Summer Solstice was a celebration of victory of sun and light on the longest day of the year over darkness and death. It’s also the alleged date of St John’s death. Interestingly it is directly opposite the feast day of the birth of Christ. St John baptized Jesus and proclaimed him The Saviour, so this particular day is supposed to point to Jesus’ triumph over death.

We now return to the traditions of this festival …

Summer Solstice is also called Litha or St. John's Day, and in Pagan times it was an important religious event. Tribes would gather to celebrate the longest day of the year. Whole communities would participate in the celebration, paying homage to nature and the planets. Mother Earth was commemorated as “The Goddess”, while “The God” was represented as the Sun King. The festivities were filled with colour – yellow for the harvest, green representing nature and blue for the sky. Some of the rituals that took place during Summer Solstice are kept alive today by modern Pagan faiths. They include:

1. Staying up all night to welcome the rising sun at dawn.

2. Keeping a sacred fire burning all night.

3. Dancing around the sacred fire to the beat of drums.

4. Burning a Yule wreath in the sacred fire.

5. Making a promise to Mother Nature to do something to improve the environment.

6. Exchanging magical gifts with fellow Pagans.

7. Exchanging songs, stories and poems with other people.

Summer Solstice was celebrated by the Slavs, the Celts and many Germanic tribes, with massive bonfires a main feature of the festivities. The Druids celebrated it as the marriage of Heaven and Earth. Customs and rituals were performed all over Europe, and over time Summer Solstice evolved into a night of fire festivals and love magic. Oracles were consulted, predictions w

number of religious and spiritual days, mostly linked to the Summer Solstice. Although people living in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate their summer solstice on December 21, the cultural and historical information about this date is still relevant.

At this point I want to make an observation - Christianity has incorporated Midsummer into the calendar, observing the feast day of St John the Baptist on June 24. It’s thought that this is because Summer Solstice was a celebration of victory of sun and light on the longest day of the year over darkness and death. It’s also the alleged date of St John’s death. Interestingly it is directly opposite the feast day of the birth of Christ. St John baptized Jesus and proclaimed him The Saviour, so this particular day is supposed to point to Jesus’ triumph over death.

We now return to the traditions of this festival …

Summer Solstice is also called Litha or St. John's Day, and in Pagan times it was an important religious event. Tribes would gather to celebrate the longest day of the year. Whole communities would participate in the celebration, paying homage to nature and the planets. Mother Earth was commemorated as “The Goddess”, while “The God” was represented as the Sun King. The festivities were filled with colour – yellow for the harvest, green representing nature and blue for the sky. Some of the rituals that took place during Summer Solstice are kept alive today by modern Pagan faiths. They include:

1. Staying up all night to welcome the rising sun at dawn.

2. Keeping a sacred fire burning all night.

3. Dancing around the sacred fire to the beat of drums.

4. Burning a Yule wreath in the sacred fire.

5. Making a promise to Mother Nature to do something to improve the environment.

6. Exchanging magical gifts with fellow Pagans.

7. Exchanging songs, stories and poems with other people.

Summer Solstice was celebrated by the Slavs, the Celts and many Germanic tribes, with massive bonfires a main feature of the festivities. The Druids celebrated it as the marriage of Heaven and Earth. Customs and rituals were performed all over Europe, and over time Summer Solstice evolved into a night of fire festivals and love magic. Oracles were consulted, predictions w

’s also the alleged date of St John’s death. Interestingly it is directly opposite the feast day of the birth of Christ. St John baptized Jesus and proclaimed him The Saviour, so this particular day is supposed to point to Jesus’ triumph over death.

We now return to the traditions of this festival …

Summer Solstice is also called Litha or St. John's Day, and in Pagan times it was an important religious event. Tribes would gather to celebrate the longest day of the year. Whole communities would participate in the celebration, paying homage to nature and the planets. Mother Earth was commemorated as “The Goddess”, while “The God” was represented as the Sun King. The festivities were filled with colour – yellow for the harvest, green representing nature and blue for the sky. Some of the rituals that took place during Summer Solstice are kept alive today by modern Pagan faiths. They include:

1. Staying up all night to welcome the rising sun at dawn.

2. Keeping a sacred fire burning all night.

3. Dancing around the sacred fire to the beat of drums.

4. Burning a Yule wreath in the sacred fire.

5. Making a promise to Mother Nature to do something to improve the environment.

6. Exchanging magical gifts with fellow Pagans.

7. Exchanging songs, stories and poems with other people.

Summer Solstice was celebrated by the Slavs, the Celts and many Germanic tribes, with massive bonfires a main feature of the festivities. The Druids celebrated it as the marriage of Heaven and Earth. Customs and rituals were performed all over Europe, and over time Summer Solstice evolved into a night of fire festivals and love magic. Oracles were consulted, predictions w

planets. Mother Earth was commemorated as “The Goddess”, while “The God” was represented as the Sun King. The festivities were filled with colour – yellow for the harvest, green representing nature and blue for the sky. Some of the rituals that took place during Summer Solstice are kept alive today by modern Pagan faiths. They include:

1. Staying up all night to welcome the rising sun at dawn.

2. Keeping a sacred fire burning all night.

3. Dancing around the sacred fire to the beat of drums.

4. Burning a Yule wreath in the sacred fire.

5. Making a promise to Mother Nature to do something to improve the environment.

6. Exchanging magical gifts with fellow Pagans.

7. Exchanging songs, stories and poems with other people.

Summer Solstice was celebrated by the Slavs, the Celts and many Germanic tribes, with massive bonfires a main feature of the festivities. The Druids celebrated it as the marriage of Heaven and Earth. Customs and rituals were performed all over Europe, and over time Summer Solstice evolved into a night of fire festivals and love magic. Oracles were consulted, predictions w

Making a promise to Mother Nature to do something to improve the environment.

6. Exchanging magical gifts with fellow Pagans.

7. Exchanging songs, stories and poems with other people.

Summer Solstice was celebrated by the Slavs, the Celts and many Germanic tribes, with massive bonfires a main feature of the festivities. The Druids celebrated it as the marriage of Heaven and Earth. Customs and rituals were performed all over Europe, and over time Summer Solstice evolved into a night of fire festivals and love magic. Oracles were consulted, predictions were made and spells were cast. Midsummer Night became focused on lovers and fortune telling, commemorating the magic of the year’s shortest night, nature and the woods. A maiden could learn the identity of her future husband, a pair of lovers could leap through the bonfire flames to bring them luck and spirits and demons would be banished. Other leapt over the flames in the belief that the higher the leap the taller the crops that year! Customs to ensure the health and fertility of the land, domestic animals and humans were performed, and the church, the nobility and the peasants would join in the celebrations. Cities and towns marked the occasion with parades, plays and festivals in the market place, the town green and nearby forests.

Adding to the celebration of nature and her gifts was the inclusion of herbal potions, water and brooks that were supposed to contain healing attributes. Water customs conducted during the Summer Solstice, such as cleaning and decorating fountains and wells persist in many European cultures to this day. The Germanic tribes called this festival “Johannisnacht”, and tell of the healing powers of a magical pool and a fern that blooms only at Midsummer. Herbs gathered at this time and specific foods like baked elder flower blossoms were also believed to be able to heal and bring health.

Here’s some more information about how ancient peoples observed the Summer Solstice.

Prehistoric Europe

Many remains of ancient stone structures can be found throughout Europe, apparently serving religious and astronomical purposes. These structures were built before writing was developed, so we can only speculate on the significance of the Summer Solstice to the builders. The most famous of these structures is Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire in the United Kingdom. It was built in three stages, between 3000 and 1500 BC. The main axis is aligned on the midsummer sunrise, an orientation that was probably for ritual rather than scientific purposes. Four "station stones" form a rectangle whose shorter side points in the direction of the midsummer sunrise.

Ancient China

Their Summer Solstice ceremony celebrated the earth, the feminine and the yin forces, complimenting the Winter Solstice which celebrate