Sunday Respite – Fathers Day and Midsummer’s Eve

We celebrate Fathers Day as well as the Summer Solstice with Midsummer this week. My selections for a respite are Richard Clayderman – Wind Beneath My Wings and “Litha” Celebration of the Summer Solstice

The days now grow shorter.

This week the wheel keeps turning as we celebrate the Summer Solstice today. This year, (in 2021), the summer solstice occurs at 11:32 pm ET on June 20.  

English author Carole Carlton, writer of the “Mrs. Darley” series: “The festival of the Summer Solstice speaks of love and light, of freedom and generosity of spirit. It is a beautiful time of year where vibrant flowers whisper to us with scented breath, forests and woodlands hang heavy in the summer’s heat and our souls become enchanted with midsummer magic.”

As we endured the darkest and longest night around December 21, we kept the vision of summer’s light and bliss in our hearts, and this too keeps hope alive. We understand the cyclical nature of all that lives and our dependence on the balance of light and darkness, life, and death.

 

Midsummer is when all life is at its zenith. We honor life, ours and all that live. We bask in the light and enjoy its blessings, ever remembering the returning darkness is necessary for the cycle of life and death to remain in balance.

The seed of death in the midst of the peak of life. Hail to the dark side of the year, the portion of rest. Hail and farewell to the light side which will pass for another year. May we greet her at the Winter Solstice.

Midsummer, also known as St John’s Day, is the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, and more specifically the Northern European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice or take place on a day between June 19 and June 25 and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different cultures. The Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr St John the Baptist, and the observance of St John’s Day begins the evening before, known as St John’s Eve.

In Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Quebec (Canada), the traditional Midsummer day, June 24, is a public holiday. So it was formerly also in Sweden and Finland, but in these countries it was, in the 1950s, moved to the Friday and Saturday between June 19 and June 26, respectively.^[5]

The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since Neolithic times. (For Neolithic and Bronze Age astronomy, see Archaeoastronomy.)  In Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia, Midsummer’s Eve is the greatest festival of the year, comparable only with Walpurgis Night, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve.

H/T: Full history at Wikipedia

Best wishes for a wonderful day. Especially fathers.