Summer Solstice 2023

 

Bees around purple flowers with bright sun
Photo by Simon Berger: https://www.pexels.com/photo/purple-flowers-in-bloom-1353126/

Yay!  The sun is at her peak, and there were some days even in the cooler-than-I-wanted-it-to-be Spring that part of me  doubted we'd get here.  But here we are!

A couple of notes. One of the names assigned to this holiday is Liða, sometimes spelled Litha.  I have never known many people locally to call it that (usually Midsummer or Summer Solstice). But if you're going to call it by the Anglo-Saxon name, PLEASE pronounce it correctly!  The "i" is a long e sound (so ee). The ð is called a 'thorn' and it is a hard-Th sound, like "that."  (It's kind of like saying my name with a weird lisp on the 's' really). 

I may have talked about midsummer before (sorry to repeat), but it falls between the planting season and the harvesting season. So, really, there's not much to DO besides just maintenance.  If my memory serves, this may have been prime time for cattle raiding, as the young men were not needed for farming at that moment.

(I am away from my notes...I have a whole thing about how Irish cattle raiding bands are akin to modern street gangs.... maybe for another post.)

ANYWAY... the omen I pulled for Midsummer was Gèadh, or Goose.  Where I live, we are inundated with Canada geese and some people see them as pests, but I do not. First, they are a harbinger of seasonal change, as I see them in the spring coming into town and in the fall leaving.  If you've seen them they are also very strongly family oriented and PROTECTIVE!  So the energies around Summer Solstice this year are just that.  A good time for being with family, however you define it.  It is possible to be too protective (and we've seen geese around her do that), so finding that line is important.  Given the time of year, when various festivals and gatherings are taking place, it is a good time to be together.

Speaking of that, in 2019 I posted the 12 day June Solstice Along (use the labels for 'solstice' to find it). I am going to be away at festival for the first half so I won't be able to post it anew, but if you want to start with me, Day 1 is here (it is cross pollinated with Yule in the Southern Hemisphere), and it will be beginning on Tuesday, June 20, the day before the solstice (Wednesday June 21).

However you celebrate, enjoy it!

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