From sunrise gatherings to dance festivals and floating-flower rituals, summer solstice celebrations certainly blow the cobwebs away.
The longest day of the year – when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky – has been marked all around the world for thousands of years, with traditions, holidays and festivals. For the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice usually comes on 21 June, while, for the southern hemisphere, it’s six months later, on 21 December.
This year in the UK, summer solstice sunrise – the start of celebrations for many – will be at 4.52am on 21 June, and the astronomical solstice – the exact moment that Earth’s axis tilts “towards the sun at its most extreme angle” – will be at 9.24am, said Space.com.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Latest Videos From
The term solstice comes from “combining the Latin words sol, for ‘sun’, and sistere, for ‘to stand still’”, meteorologist Joe Rao told the astronomy site. Here are some of the best places to stand still yourself – or maybe join the chanting and drumming – to mark midsummer.
Stonehenge and around the UK
The 4,000-year-old stone circle in Wiltshire is one of the most famous places to observe the solstice. Visitors flock to the site near “to witness the moment the sun rises up behind the ‘heel stone’, the ancient entrance to the monument”, said the BBC. If you’re thinking of going there this year, note that parking is limited and must be pre-booked; there will be special shuttle buses from Salisbury train station.
Glastonbury Tor is the “second most obvious place in Britain to celebrate the summer solstice and, arguably, it has the better views”, said BBC Countryfile. “It’s one of Britain’s most spiritual sites, so you’ll be part of a crowd drumming and chanting as they have done here for millennia.” The Tor, “crowned by the ruins of 15th-century St Michael’s Church”, offers a “timeless” view of “some of Britain’s most beautiful hills”.
Further north, there’s Saltwick Bay – a “small yet particularly photogenic section” of the Yorkshire coast – where the sun rises (and sets) over the sea, and rock formations glisten with “mirror-like” pools in the early morning light. You can also watch the “Black Nab rock stack and the twisted wreck of the Admiral Von Trump take centre stage” as the sun rises higher.
In Scotland, Arthur’s Seat, a “surprisingly wild spot” overlooking Edinburgh, is a “popular” and “lively” solstice viewpoint.
Europe and North America
In Greece, many “still follow the 2,500-year-old tradition” of climbing Mount Olympus to observe the solstice, while in some Eastern European countries like Belarus, people take “chaplets” – small flower garlands – to rivers and set them floating downstream, said Condé Nast Traveller. Swedes dance around “flower-covered maypoles”, and Catalonians “dress up as mystical or religious characters with typical ‘big head’ masks in a celebration that dates back to the Middle Ages”.
The Ottawa summer solstice Indigenous festival in Canada “puts First Nations culture on centre stage” with live performances, celebrating both midsummer and National Indigenous Peoples Day together.
And in Mexico, all eyes turn to the El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza, which was constructed so that the shadows of the setting sun at the summer solstice “look like a feathered serpent descending”. The symbol of Kulkulcan, a Mayan deity of wind, rain and the passing of time, it is a reminder “that the arrival of summer is a pivotal time to accept new beginnings”.
