The Summer Solstice

The month of June has an important date!! The summer solstice!

A solstice happens when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky and in the ancient cultures this was related to power, of course. The summer solstice has generally been celebrated around the north hemisphere as a time of power and a coincidence of energies.  This event happens twice every year in the winter and in the summer and this phenomena together with the equinoxes, are connected with the seasons.

Today in ChiosRadio.gr we will talk about the summer solstice and its relationship to the Ancient Greek culture.

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, and that is an event to celebrate isn’t it? This day was and is also known as midsummer and many festivals, celebrations and traditions took place in this date around the north hemisphere.

They believed that was a solar phenomenon that provided an imaginary door for entrance and exits of energies from another dimensions. The summer solstice was called the Door of the Men. Of course the adoration of the Sun was a common in all the cultures and the bonfires had the origin in the ones that the people made for the God Apolo, and they had a healing proposal for purifying.

But let’s talk a little bit how this day was celebrated in the Ancient Greece, the summer solstice occurred exactly one month before the opening of the original Olympic Games. And also the Greeks were one of the first cultures that recorded the occurrence of the solstice. Many festivals took place for celebrating the arrival of such a distinct date that plus all we said before, for many versions of the Greek calendar was also the first day of the New Year. And needless to say that as sea people that the Greeks has always been they used the solstice in their astronomical and navigational charts.

If we analyse a little bit more the word Solstice, it comes from the Latin phrase “Sun stands still”. sol (sun) y sistere (stay still).The ancients knew that life came from the sun, it was life giving, life supporting, without it life would be lost. Fire is also the proof of that power, it is the equivalent that the people had of the sun in the Earth, and the evidence of their importance is that they are still present in our culture.  The people used to feast, dance and jump the fire for luck. Was also believed that when the fires had burned down the people would carry ashes back to their homes to sprinkle on fields.

The water is the other important aspect of Midsummer. The people used to swim in waters at midnight of the summer solstice, and according to them that brought healing, cleansing and protection.

Nowadays we still celebrate the summer solstice, in mostly of the places of the north hemisphere, so we can say that this day is still an important day for the people and that the Ancients and in concrete the Ancient Greeks had a point in consider this day so important.

In Chios Island we have been enjoying the summer for a while now but let’s wait until the summer solstice of this year for officially saying that the summer is started!!